This healthy diet may be critical in preventing stroke.
The hidden connection between meal temperature, depression and sleep.
These dietary components and micronutrients are strongly linked to better cognitive function.
Vitamin D supplementation could lower the risk of dying from cancer-related diseases and increase life expectancy by years.
Vitamin D supplementation could lower the risk of dying from cancer-related diseases and increase life expectancy by years.
Tiredness and weak muscles can be signs of vitamin D deficiency, as can headaches and poor sleep.
Taking vitamin D can reduce cancer mortality rates by 13 percent with 30,000 fewer cancer-related deaths each year, according to a German study.
Based on their national data on cancer mortality in 2016, vitamin D supplementation could significantly lower cancer deaths in adults over age 50.
They say if all these middle-aged Germans took vitamin D, nearly 30,000 premature deaths from cancer could be prevented and 300,000 years of life could be saved.
In recent years scientists have been looking into the effect of vitamin D on several conditions such as diabetes, inflammatory diseases, cancer, and respiratory illnesses.
Reviews of large clinical trials show that vitamin D supplementation is linked to a 13 percent reduction in the cancer death rate.
Dr Hermann Brenner, the study’s co-author, said:
“In many countries around the world, the age-adjusted rate of cancer mortality has fortunately declined over the past decade.
However, given the often considerable costs of many new cancer drugs, this success has often come at a high price.
Vitamin D, on the other hand, is comparatively inexpensive in the usual daily doses.”
Older people are commonly found to have vitamin D deficiency, particularly those with cancer.
In 2016, the number of people over-50 in Germany was about 36 million.
The research team calculated that the treatment cost of vitamin D supplementation at a 1,000 international units daily dose would cost 25 euros per person a year.
Considering its health benefits, the cost for the health care system would be practically nothing after all.
Dr Brenner, said:
“In view of the potentially significant positive effects on cancer mortality — additionally combined with a possible cost saving — we should look for new ways to reduce the widespread vitamin D deficiency in the elderly population in Germany.
In some countries, foods have even been enriched with vitamin D for many years — for example, in Finland, where cancer mortality rates are about 20 percent lower than in Germany.
Not to mention that there is mounting evidence of other positive health effects of adequate vitamin D supply, such as in lung disease mortality rates.
Finally, we consider vitamin D supplementation so safe that we even recommend it for newborn babies to develop healthy bones.”
We can all improve our vitamin D levels at no cost by exposure to sunlight everyday.
The German Cancer Research Centre recommends three times a week for at least 12 minutes outside in the sun.
During this period of time the face, hands, arms and legs should be left uncovered without wearing sunscreen.
The study was published in the journal Molecular Oncology (Niedermaier et al., 2021).
High consumption of the drink is linked to a 53 percent increased risk of dementia.
High consumption of the drink is linked to a 53 percent increased risk of dementia.
High coffee consumption is linked to brain shrinkage.
Over six cups of coffee a day is linked to a 53 percent increased risk of dementia, the largest study of its kind reveals.
Similarly, high consumption of coffee also increases the risk of stroke by 17 percent.
The results come from an analysis including almost 18,000 people who were tracked as part of the UK Biobank study.
Ms Kitty Pham, the study’s first author, said:
“Coffee is among the most popular drinks in the world.
Yet with global consumption being more than nine billion kilograms a year, it’s critical that we understand any potential health implications.
This is the most extensive investigation into the connections between coffee, brain volume measurements, the risks of dementia, and the risks of stroke — it’s also the largest study to consider volumetric brain imaging data and a wide range of confounding factors.
Accounting for all possible permutations, we consistently found that higher coffee consumption was significantly associated with reduced brain volume — essentially, drinking more than six cups of coffee a day may be putting you at risk of brain diseases such as dementia and stroke.”
Dementia is a brain condition that affects memory, behaviour and thinking skills.
Six of the risk factors for dementia are:
Stroke is when the blood supply to the brain is disrupted for a period.
Starving the brain of oxygen can cause brain damage and loss of function.
Balance is the key, said Professor Elina Hyppönen, study co-author:
“This research provides vital insights about heavy coffee consumption and brain health, but as with many things in life, moderation is the key.
Together with other genetic evidence and a randomized controlled trial, these data strongly suggest that high coffee consumption can adversely affect brain health.
While the exact mechanisms are not known, one simple thing we can do is to keep hydrated and remember to drink a bit of water alongside that cup of coffee.
Typical daily coffee consumption is somewhere between one and two standard cups of coffee.
Of course, while unit measures can vary, a couple of cups of coffee a day is generally fine.
However, if you’re finding that your coffee consumption is heading up toward more than six cups a day, it’s about time you rethink your next drink.”
The study was published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience (Pham et al., 2021).
This plant-based nutrient may help protect against disability and disease into old age.
This plant-based nutrient may help protect against disability and disease into old age.
Dietary fibre consumed from fruits, cereals and breads is linked to aging successfully over many years.
The surprising benefits of fibre-rich foods have been underestimated, but Australian researchers reveal that fibre makes a big difference to successful aging.
They studied 1,609 adults who were 49 years and older for 10 years to find out the relationship between healthy aging and carbohydrate nutrition.
Total carbohydrate intake, total fibre intake, sugar intake, glycaemic load and glycaemic index factors were examined.
Fibre had the largest impact on what the researchers called ‘successful aging.’
Successful aging was defined as the absence of:
Professor Bamini Gopinath, the study’s lead author, said:
“Out of all the variables that we looked at, fiber intake — which is a type of carbohydrate that the body can’t digest — had the strongest influence.
Essentially, we found that those who had the highest intake of fiber or total fiber actually had an almost 80 percent greater likelihood of living a long and healthy life over a 10-year follow-up.
That is, they were less likely to suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dementia, depression, and functional disability.”
We might expect that sugar intake would have a big impact on healthy aging, but in this study it was not linked to aging well.
Professor Gopinath pointed out that the older adults who participated in this study had a low intake of carbonated and sugary drinks in their diet.
The study was published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (Gopinath et al., 2016).
People who have higher levels of this chemical in their blood may be at a lower risk of Alzheimer’s.
76% of global population not getting enough of these healthy fats that fights depression and Alzheimer’s.
It is estimated that up to 70 percent of people could have a vitamin D deficiency.
It is estimated that up to 70 percent of people could have a vitamin D deficiency.
Depression and pain can both be signs of vitamin D deficiency.
As well as low mood, the most important symptoms of depression are:
People in the study reported pains such as:
Both depression and pain were reduced after participants were given vitamin D2 supplementation.
Some studies estimate that up to 70 percent of people could have a vitamin D deficiency.
The study, which lasted six months, included women with type 2 diabetes.
Dr Todd Doyle, the study’s first author, said:
“Pain is a common and often serious problem for women with type 2 diabetes and depression.
While further research is needed, D2 supplementation is a promising treatment for both pain and depression in type 2 diabetes.”
Foods that are rich in vitamin D include oily fish and eggs, but most people get their vitamin D from the action of sunlight on the skin.
That is why levels are typically lower in the body through the winter months in more Northern climes.
Professor Sue Penckofer said:
“Vitamin D has widespread benefits for our health and certain chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes.”
Other disease linked to vitamin D deficiency include cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.
The study was presented at a research conference at Loyola University Chicago’s Health Sciences Campus (Doyle et al., 2013).
Over 1 billion people worldwide have a vitamin D deficiency.
Over 1 billion people worldwide have a vitamin D deficiency.
Difficulties with memory and learning are signs of vitamin D deficiency, research finds.
Vitamin D deficiency is even linked to disorders such as depression and schizophrenia.
Deficiency in the vitamin affects critical structures in the hippocampus, an area of the brain important in memory and learning.
Dr Thomas Burne, study co-author, said:
“Over a billion people worldwide are affected by vitamin D deficiency, and there is a well-established link between vitamin D deficiency and impaired cognition.
Unfortunately, exactly how vitamin D influences brain structure and function is not well understood, so it has remained unclear why deficiency causes problems.”
For the study, researchers removed vitamin D from the diets of mice for 20 weeks.
The mice clearly showed problems with learning and memory compared to a control group, who were fed sufficient levels of vitamin D.
The researchers found that vitamin D is important in keeping perineuronal nets in the hippocampus stable.
Dr Burne explained:
“These nets form a strong, supportive mesh around certain neurons, and in doing so they stabilise the contacts these cells make with other neurons.
As neurons in the hippocampus lose their supportive perineuronal nets, they have trouble maintaining connections, and this ultimately leads to a loss of cognitive function.”
The hippocampus is a particularly active part of the brain, which may be why it is affected by vitamin D deficiency early on, said Dr Burne:
“It’s like the canary in the coalmine—it might fail first because its high energy requirement makes it more sensitive to the depletion of essential nutrients like vitamin D.
Intriguingly, the right side of the hippocampus was more affected by vitamin D deficiency than the left side.”
The damage to these perineuronal nets may help to explain the memory problems that are a symptom of schizophrenia.
Dr Burne said:
“The next step is to test this new hypothesis on the link between vitamin D deficiency, perineuronal nets and cognition.
We are also particularly excited to have discovered these nets can change in adult mice.
I’m hoping that because they’re dynamic there is a chance that we can rebuild them, and that could set the stage for new treatments.”
The study was published in the journal Brain Structure and Function (Al-Amin et al., 2019).
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