Supplement may help burn fat long after exercise

G

ut bacteria produce an appetite suppressant than can strengthen the effect of an exercise-based weight loss program.

Share on PinterestA supplement may boost the fat-burning effects of exercise long after it has finished.

The many health benefits of regular exercise are well known. However, its impact on weight loss is less clear, as exercise increases appetite, potentially resulting in an increased calorie intake.

A new study appearing in the journal Metabolism presents a possible solution.

The research comes from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, the Universities of Glasgow and the West of Scotland, and Imperial College in London, all of which are in the United Kingdom.

It suggests that adding a certain appetite-suppressing supplement to moderate exercise increases the likelihood of weight loss, even without a change of diet.

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council provided funding for this research.

A fascinating supplement

The study explored a supplement called inulin-propionate ester (IPE).

Propionate is a short-chain fatty acid produced in the digestion of dietary fiber by gut microbes. It is a natural and effective appetite suppressor.

Propionate breaks down quickly in the body, so to strengthen its effect, scientists have chemically bound it to inulin. This is a fiber common to garlic, Jerusalem artichoke, chicory, and onion. The result is IPE.

As corresponding study author Douglas Morrison notes, "There's a great deal of interest at the moment in how our gut microbiota affects our health and well-being."

Top of Form

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY NEWSLETTER

Stay in the know. Get our free daily newsletter

Expect in-depth, science-backed toplines of our best stories every day. Tap in and keep your curiosity satisfied.

SIGN UP NOW

Your privacy is important to us

Bottom of Form

The scientists' previous research established that the use of IPE as a dietary supplement increased the rate at which the body oxidizes, or burns, fat while at rest.

The research also found that IPE suppresses the urge to consume high calorie foods. As an example, those who the researchers offered all the pasta they could eat wound up eating 10% less than they usually would.

Their new study has revealed that IPE can enhance the weight loss effects of a moderate exercise program without requiring dietary changes.

As Morrison explains, "What we've been able to show for the first time is that this latter effect continues when exercise is added to regular IPE intake." The study did not examine the effectiveness of a weight loss diet plus exercises plus IPE.

The trial consisted of 20 women aged 25–45. Each had a body mass index (BMI) greater than 25. The trial lasted for 4 weeks.

The team divided the participants into two groups of 10. Both groups participated in moderate exercise programs.

One group received a supplement of IPE, and the other received a placebo supplement comprising cellulose. All participants maintained their normal eating patterns throughout the trial.

The researchers measured each person's resting fat oxidation levels both before and after the trial using blood and gas samples. They collected these before breakfast, after breakfast, and after lunch.

The participants who exercised while taking the placebo exhibited no change to their fat oxidation levels after the trials.

The group taking the IPE, however, showed a significant increase in the burning of fat at rest, even 7 hours after their most recent dose of IPE.

Limitations of the study

The new study was small and its duration brief, so its conclusions require additional verification.

Study co-author Dalia Malkova says, "While these initial results are promising, we should stress that there are limitations to this study, which was conducted with a small group over just [4] weeks."

"For example, we can't yet draw any conclusions about how the increased fat oxidation, combined with exercise, might affect participants' body composition and body mass."

The researchers are seeking funding for further trials of IPE, involving more people and for a longer period of time.

Source: MedicalNewsToday

How 'good' viruses may influence health

A

lthough the role of "good" viruses in human health is still relatively mysterious, we are slowly unraveling the importance of our viral visitors. In this special feature, we introduce a neglected section of the microbiome — the virome.

Share on PinterestIllustration of bacteriophages infecting a bacterium.

The role of bacteria and our microbiome in health and disease is at the forefront of medical research.

We are a long way from answering the many questions posed by recent findings, but it is now firmly established that without our personal fleet of "friendly" microorganisms — our microbiome — we would not thrive.

Medical science, however, does not sit on its haunches; its eyes are always fixed on the horizon, straining to describe the shape of things hidden in the far distance.

As we struggle to unpick the almost unbearably complex interactions between bacteria and health, the next challenge is already waiting in the wings: the role of the virome.

What is the virome?

When we hear the word "microbiome," we immediately think of bacteria, but technically, the microbiome is the sum of all microorganisms in a particular environment. Some scientists use the term to refer to the sum of the genetic material of these microorganisms.

So, aside from bacteria, the microbiome also includes viruses (the virome) and fungi (the mycobiome), among other visitors. To date, scientists have paid comparatively little attention to the virome or mycobiome.

Viruses have made themselves at home in a range of ecological niches in the human body, especially on mucosal surfaces, such as the insides of the nose and mouth and the lining of the gut.

In this feature, we will concentrate on the gut virome because it hosts the greatest number of viral occupants and has been investigated the most.

Of course, viruses are most famous for causing diseases, such as smallpox, hepatitis, HIV, and rabies. Because of the urgency associated with viral disease, this aspect has taken up the lion's share of researchers' time. However, many viruses do not have the slightest interest in human cells.

Introducing the bacteriophage

Scientists consider the virome to be "the largest, the most diverse, and the most dynamic part of [the] microbiome," and the majority of the viruses in our guts are bacteriophages. Wherever there are bacteria, there are bacteriophages in abundance.

As other researchers explain: "Phages are the most abundant life forms on Earth, being virtually omnipresent. [...] Some freshwater sources may contain up to 10 billion per [milliliter]."

Bacteriophages infect bacteria, commandeer their cell machinery, and use it to replicate their genetic material.

It is now abundantly clear that gut bacteria influence health and disease, so it is no surprise that viruses that infect gut bacteria may have a significant influence, too.

Phage therapy

From the 1920s to the 1950s, scientists investigated whether bacteriophages could be used to treat bacterial infections. After all, these viruses are adept at destroying human pathogens.

Scientists found that phage therapy was both effective and, importantly, free from side effects.

When antibiotics were discovered, phage therapy faded into the background. Antibiotics could be manufactured with relative ease, and they killed a broad spectrum of bacterial species.

However, with today's hi-tech capabilities and the fearsome backdrop of antibiotic resistance, interest in phage therapy may enjoy a resurgence.

One factor that makes phage therapy attractive is its specificity. Often, antibiotics wipe out a wide spectrum of bacterial species. Now that we know that "good" bacteria live in the gut, however, it is clear that this is not ideal.

Bacteriophages, meanwhile, only target a narrow range of strains within the same bacterial species.

Plus, they only replicate if their target bacteria are in the local area. Taken together, this means that they only attack the desired bacterium, and they continue to replicate until they have wiped out the infection.

Friends for life

Bacteriophages join the human journey at an early stage. One study examined meconium — a newborn's first poop — and found no evidence of viruses.

However, just 1 week after birth, each gram of a baby's poop contained about 100 million virus particles, most of which were bacteriophages. Our virome truly is a lifelong companion.

Each human has a distinct selection of bacteriophages, which is collectively referred to as the phageome. People who have roughly the same diet share more similarities, but overall, each individual's phageome varies wildly.

Top of Form

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY NEWSLETTER

Stay in the know. Get our free daily newsletter

Expect in-depth, science-backed toplines of our best stories every day. Tap in and keep your curiosity satisfied.

SIGN UP NOW

Your privacy is important to us

Bottom of Form

From symbiosis to dysbiosis

Bacteriophages, as mentioned, destroy bacteria. However, in some situations, bacteriophages can benefit populations of bacteria.

In the gut, bacteriophages predominantly exist as prophages. In this stage, their genetic code is incorporated into a bacterium's genome, ready to produce bacteriophages if activated.

At this point in their life, a bacteriophage is not harmful to a bacterium — they exist in symbiosis.

Because bacteria can exchange genetic material with each other, the genetic code of prophages can also be transferred between individual bacteria.

They can exchange "genes associated with antibiotic resistance, virulence, or metabolic pathways between different bacterial species." This could benefit some bacterial species, potentially allowing them to broaden their niche. However, the growth could be at the expense of other colonies of bacteria in the gut.

"Prophages are symbiotic to their host bacteria, and these bacteria are symbiotic to our body. Therefore, phages can indirectly provide benefit to a multicellular organism like [a] human beyond what is experienced immediately by their host bacterial cells."

Once prophages are triggered to become active — for instance, in times of stress or if the host bacterium is in danger — they can cause a widespread change in the gut's microbial community.

The shift from harmless prophage to so-called lytic phage can wipe out communities of bacteria, potentially providing "bad" bacteria with some breathing space and allowing them to fill the void.

This is called community shuffling and can lead to dysbiosis — a microbial imbalance.

From dysbiosis to diagnosis

Dysbiosis is associated with a range of conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, obesity, Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infection, and colitis. However, researchers are still unsure of the role of bacteriophages in these conditions.

In these cases, dysbiosis might occur via other mechanisms. Alternately, it might be a symptom of the conditions, rather than the cause.

Researchers have observed changes in gut bacteria in a surprisingly varied range of diseases, including type 2 diabetes, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, Parkinson's disease, and many more.

Because bacteriophages outnumber the bacteria in our guts and rely on them to replicate, they must be either affected by or involved in any fluctuations.

Bacteriophages may not be driving changes in the gut — changes that, it must be added, may not be driving the disease. Instead, bacteriophage populations might just be altered, passively, by the changes in gut bacteria.

Whether the ebb and flow of bacteriophage communities is important in health and disease will be challenging to investigate. But even if it is not pivotal in the pathology of a disease, spotting these fluctuations might have other benefits.

As an example, there is the potential to use the virome as a diagnostic marker. For instance, scientists have identified disease-specific alterations in the gut virome in people with inflammatory bowel disease, which is a notoriously difficult condition to diagnose.

The trouble with viruses

Studying bacteria is far from easy; after all, they are incredibly small. Bacteria are generally 0.4–10 micrometers across. To provide some context: 10 micrometers is just one-hundredth of a millimeter or four ten-thousandths of an inch.

Viruses, however, are even smaller, at just 0.02–0.4 micrometers across.

Aside from the difficulties inherent in working on such a tiny scale, viruses pose other challenges.

If scientists want to understand which bacterial species are present in any given population, they extract genetic information.

From this, they isolate specific stretches of code and match them to existing databases; most commonly, they use the 16S rRNA gene. This particular gene can be found in almost all bacterial species, and over evolutionary time, it has remained relatively unchanged.

However, some regions of 16S RNA are considered hypervariable. Differences between these regions allow researchers to identify species.

Viruses, on the other hand, do not share any equivalent genes among species. This, until relatively recently, made studying the virome almost impossible, but advances in next-generation sequencing are slowly knocking down barriers.

At this stage, the role of viruses in human health is nowhere near as clear as their role in disease.

With that said, it also seems highly likely that viruses do play a substantial part in maintaining a healthy body. Only with advances in research techniques will their full impact be understood.

Given the immediate concerns of antibiotic resistance, perhaps renewed interest in the bacteriophage will see more time dedicated to this mysterious element of medical science.

Still, understanding the interplay between the components of our microbiome will be hard-won information; as one paper explains:

"The composition of the gut microbiome is not the same during the several stages of life, or even during the hours of the same day."

Source: MedicalNewsToday

Anxious about the news? Our top tips on how to cope

R

eading the news can be stress-inducing at the best of times. When the news is particularly worrying, many of us experience levels of anxiety so high that we can have difficulty coping. So how can we stay (reasonably) anxiety-free when the media bombards us with headlines that spook us?

Share on PinterestDoes the news get you down? In this Special Feature, we look at some ways to fight off related anxiety.

It may seem as though we have entered an age of bad news. Every day for the past few years, newspapers and news websites have turned out stressful headlines full-blast.

There is news about wars and civic unrest, impending ecological disasters, failing economies, and violent, sad local events.

And — why not admit it? — though we aim to provide our readers with constructive, actionable content at Medical News Today, we, too, sometimes end up highlighting news that could be stressful.

While our intent is positive, to warn our readers about possible health dangers and empower our audience to avoid them, our content may sometimes lead to worry and anxiety.

So what can you do if what seems like a constant cycle of negative news throughout every media outlet is getting you down and interfering with your well-being?

In this Special Feature, we look at some tips for coping with the special kind of anxiety that can come from reading the news.

'Headline stress disorder'?

While news cycle-related anxiety has probably existed for centuries, it became particularly obvious in 2016, a year packed with global events that polarized communities.

When people started reporting tension and anxiety that stemmed from feeling bombarded by alarming news headlines, some therapists came to describe this as its own phenomenon.

For example, therapist Steven Stosny, Ph.D., refers to it as "headline stress disorder" in an opinion piece for The Washington Post. He describes his personal experience with clients in whom the grueling news cycle triggered intense feelings of worry and helplessness, and he reports that this particularly affected female clients.

Stosny's observations may be spot-on. According to a study from 2012, women are better than men at remembering negative news for longer periods. They also have more persistent physiological reactions to the stress caused by such news, the study's authors conclude.

"Many feel personally devalued, rejected, unseen, unheard, and unsafe. They report a sense of foreboding and mistrust about the future," Stosny writes.

A survey conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that between August 2016 and January 2017, people in the United States reported an overall average stress level increase from 4.8 to 5.1 on a scale where 1 means little or no stress and 10 means an extremely high level of stress.

According to the researchers, this was the first notable increase in average stress levels in the decade since the association first started conducting these surveys.

The APA's 2019 report on stress levels in the U.S. population did not find much of a difference compared with past years, except in one respect: Respondents said that they felt distinctly more anxiety about specific topics.

According to the most recent poll data from the report, adults in the U.S. experienced the highest amounts of stress about politics, healthcare, and mass shootings.

Meanwhile, climate change and sexual harassment — other topics frequently covered in the news — also caused significantly more stress in 2019 than in 2018.

Millennials and Gen Zers most affected

The report's authors found that "More than 7 in 10 adults (72%) agree with the statement that the 'media blow things out of proportion,' and more than half (54%) say that they want to stay informed about the news, but following it causes them stress."

Differently aged groups reported different levels of stress that they attribute to the news media, with more people in their 30s and younger admitting to being upset by the news cycle:

"Around 3 in 5 Gen Z adults (61%) and millennials (60%) [say] they want to stay informed but that following the news causes them stress, while more than half of Gen Xers (55%) and half of Boomers (50%) express the same sentiment. However, just more than one-third of older adults (36%) say they want to stay informed but that doing so causes them stress."

The authors also add that many people choose to deal with this issue by avoiding the news. "Nearly 2 in 5 adults (39%) report that they have taken steps over the past year to reduce their news consumption," they write.

Take a break from the news

When faced with anxiety about what feels like a constant cycle of negative news, the best approach may be to step away and take a break from these reports, at least for a while.

For some, the anger, hopelessness, and feeling of powerlessness that can stem from sustained exposure to stressful news can really stand in the way of being productive on a day-to-day basis.

MNT spoke with one person who says that she has been living with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For her, taking a break from the news was the only way to cope with news-related anxiety.

"I have huge news anxiety," she told us. "I realized a decade ago that the only way to really cope with my mental health was to not read the news or watch the news on [TV]. It means that I rarely have a clue [as to] what's going on in the world, and I feel [bad] when I hear people talking around me, but it also means that I can get out of bed in the mornings."

Top of Form

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY NEWSLETTER

Stay in the know. Get our free daily newsletter

Expect in-depth, science-backed toplines of our best stories every day. Tap in and keep your curiosity satisfied.

SIGN UP NOW

Your privacy is important to us

Bottom of Form

Switching to other activities may also help — not only to take your mind off negative scenarios for a while, but also to help regulate the emotions and make positive connections.

"It's vital to step back and recharge sometimes," another person who spoke with MNT about her news-related anxiety explains.

"My solution for news-based anxiety is the same as for any anxiety I'm feeling — I need to get out into nature, read some books, engage in some face-to-face conversations, and shun screens for a while," she adds.

As research has shown, reading can also help reduce stress, as can exercise, listening to music, and practicing meditation.

Katherine C. Nordal, Ph.D., the APA's executive director for professional practice, likewise emphasizes the importance of taking a break from the news cycle and turning to other activities instead:

"Read enough to stay informed, but then plan activities that give you a regular break from the issues and the stress they might cause. And remember to take care of yourself and pay attention to other areas of your life."

Focus on what you can solve

Instead of, or as well as, unplugging from the news, one way of coping with news-related anxiety is to focus on issues that you can help solve.

Negative world news, regarding acts of violence or the impact of a devastating hurricane, for example, can make people feel powerless and defeated.

But everyone can do a little something to make the world better — by contributing to positive changes in their communities, families, or even themselves.

One reader who spoke with MNT said that constant exposure to bad news made her want to spring into action — so she did, at a local level.

"I was feeling helpless and useless after a summer of bad news, so I joined a small but passionate political party," she told us. "It can be tempting to disengage, but stepping back was making me feel like I was letting others decide my future for me."

Another MNT reader took a similar approach and found that making a conscious decision to turn away from the news and start focusing on positive changes in one's own life can feel empowering and help relieve anxiety.

"It feels like, increasingly, the news causes me anxiety. [...] It used to really get me down, especially thinking about what kind of world I'm bringing my children into," this reader told us.

But one morning, after getting wound up by more anxiety-inducing breaking news, she and her partner decided that enough was enough:

"[My husband and I] briefly discussed [the distressing news], agreed [...] that it's not worth focusing on, and then quickly changed the subject to talk about what we are focusing on this year to make our planet and immediate community better. Doing that takes away the feeling of hopelessness and puts some power back in my own hands to make the change I want to see in the world."

Research has shown that getting involved in one's community by volunteering for local causes can boost a person's sense of well-being, reinstill a feeling of purpose, and solidify a sense of identity within the community.

Search for positive news roundups

When it feels as though a barrage of bad news can reach us all too easily, we sometimes need to make an effort to find positive news. This can help counteract news-related anxiety.

While we may feel that it is our responsibility to understand what is going wrong in the world so that we can find a way to fix it, it is also very important to find out what is going well so that we feel motivated, hopeful, and uplifted.

In an older study, researchers from the University of Sussex, in Brighton, United Kingdom, have shown that when we watch, read, or listen to negative news, it can exacerbate our tendency to worry about and formulate catastrophizing scenarios about issues in our own lives — even if they have no obvious connection to the news topics.

"The results of [our] study show that watching a predominantly negatively valenced news program raised self-reported measures of anxious and sad mood and subsequently led to the enhanced catastrophizing of personal worries," the researchers write.

That is why Karen McIntyre, Ph.D., from the Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, and Cathrine Gyldensted, from the Open Eyes Institute in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, argue that we need a lot more constructive journalism.

The two researchers coined this term to describe a type of journalism that focuses more on possible solutions to ongoing problems and on presenting "the other side," rather than just focusing on the problems themselves.

"Constructive journalism seeks to counterbalance the skewed portrayal of the world produced by classical news journalism and strengthen traditional journalistic ethics," McIntyre and Gyldensted write.

"We have [...] defined constructive journalism as 'journalism that involves applying positive psychology techniques to news processes and production in an effort to create productive and engaging coverage while holding true to journalism's core functions.'"

Karen McIntyre, Ph.D., and Cathrine Gyldensted

One person whom MNT spoke with emphasized how important news with a positive streak has been when it comes to fighting anxiety that results from negative news.

"[I've been reading] positive news, [which] helps me balance out the negatives, and [it] also provides some actionable ideas. Traditional news tells you about trauma and sometimes points out the ways in which you're complicit, but it doesn't give you the next step."

This person was eager to access news written from different, more constructive perspectives — articles or segments that "provide great examples of people making progressive change, which people can then emulate and feel like they're making a difference."

When the news cycle brings us down with an outpour of calamities, it is crucial to ask ourselves more about our relationship with the news. Why do we access it, and what do we hope to get from this?

When we turn on the news, we must seek to prioritize our own well-being, in order to make positive changes in the world.

Source: MedicalNewsToday