Publisher Health

Researchers at the University of Bonn (Germany) have identified a previously unknown genetic program in the fruit fly. The genetic material involved controls the development of the neurons while also protecting them from degeneration. They have hardly changed in the course of evolution over hundreds of millions of years and also exist in a comparable form in humans. Initial data show that they presumably perform similar tasks there. The results may therefore also provide a starting point for new active ingredients for neurodegenerative diseases. They are published in the journal Neuron.
A fruit fly’s brain is barely larger than the dot on this i, yet nevertheless consists of around 100,000 neurons. There are almost a million times as many neurons in the human brain. And the other differences between the two thinking organs are also considerable — after all, the paths of Drosophila melanogaster (as the species is known by its scientific name) and Homo sapiens separated several hundred millions of years ago during evolution.
There are nevertheless astounding parallels between the two organisms. The current study has now discovered another of them. The research group led by Prof. Dietmar Schmucker from the LIMES Institute at the University of Bonn investigated what function certain genetic material in the fruit fly plays in the development of its brain. “We specifically switched off individual genes and observed how the neurons changed as a result,” explains Schmucker, who is holding a Humboldt Professorship in Bonn since 2019. “During this, we came upon a gene called WNK, which performs an incredible dual role.”
WNK performs a dual role
The crucial discovery was made by the lead author of the study, Dr. Azadeh Izadifar, a postdoctoral student in Schmucker’s working group. She was able to show that WNK is necessary for connecting the neurons during the development of the nervous system. If the gene is not present, for instance, due to an experimentally induced mutation, then the branching of the axons does not take place. These axons are cable-like cell offshoots that transmit electrical signals to other neurons. They are usually connected to many different receptor cells via synapses. “Without the WNK protein, functional axonal branches are largely absent,” emphasizes Izadifar.
In adult animals, however, WNK appears to protect existing axons. If the genetic material is switched off at this late time, the branches degenerate in the adult animals. “Both functions may be two sides of the same coin,” presumes Schmucker. This is because WNK appears to be part of a regulatory network that controls both the formation during development and also the degeneration of neuron connections in adult animals. The gene contains the blueprint for what is known as a kinase. This refers to an enzyme that “glues” certain chemical components to other proteins, thus controlling their activity. The WNK kinase regulates and supports a factor called NMNAT, which protects the neurons. At the same time, it inhibits at least two other proteins called Sarm and Axed. It is known that they both play an important role in the active neurodegeneration of axons.
Important balance between protection and degeneration
However, the kinase may not be directly involved in these opposing processes. It fine-tunes an as-yet-unknown parameter and thus adjusts the balance between protection and degeneration. Both processes are essential for the function of the brain.
These results may offer new impetus for the understanding of how neurodegenerative diseases occur in humans and how they could possibly be treated. This is because WNK kinases also exist in mammals — in mice as well as in us. Not only that, they also appear to be essential for protecting our neurons, too. The results of a collaboration with the research group led by Prof. Franck Polleux at Columbia University in New York at least point in this direction. The team was able to show that WNK kinases are also important for the formation of axonal branches in mice and that their loss leads to the degeneration of axons. “It is also known that certain WNK mutations in humans lead to nerve damage, called peripheral neuropathy, which is accompanied by progressive sensory disorders in the arms and legs,” explains Schmucker.
Schmucker hopes that the WNK kinase may perhaps be of therapeutic use in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases — such as by being overactivated using an active ingredient, thus increasing its ability to protect neurons. The study also demonstrates the far-reaching insights that can be gained from simple organisms such as the fruit fly. Schmucker’s research group is now using a second model system — the western clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis. As a vertebrate, it is more similar to humans than the fly is. Xenopus tadpoles are also more or less transparent. The effects of certain genetic manipulations on growth and degeneration of neurons can thus be observed in the living animal.
The study was supported with funding from the Belgian “Research Foundation — Flanders” (FWO), the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale (FRM) in France, the European Union as part of its ERC Starting Grants, and by the Humboldt Foundation, the Roger De Spoelberch Fondation, and the Thompson Family Foundation Initiative. Alongside the University of Bonn, KU Leuven, the Université de Lyon, Columbia University New York, and the University of Tokyo were involved in the work.
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Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden recently reported that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) could reduce overdiagnoses and thereby improve prostate cancer screening. Now, the same research group has published a study in The Lancet Oncology, which shows that the addition of a novel blood test, the Stockholm3 test, can reduce the number of MRIs performed by a third while further preventing the detection of minor, low-risk tumours.
“Overall, our studies show that we have identified the tools needed to be able to carry out effective and safe screening for prostate cancer. After many years of debate and research, it feels fantastic to be able to present knowledge that can improve healthcare for men,” says Tobias Nordström, associate professor of urology at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital at Karolinska Institutet, who is responsible for the STHLM3MRI study.
Current screening methods — PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests combined with traditional biopsies — result in unnecessary biopsies and the detection of numerous minor, low-risk tumours (overdiagnosis). Consequently, no country except Lithuania has chosen to introduce a nationwide prostate cancer screening programme, as the benefits do not outweigh the disadvantages.
On July 9 2021, results from the STHLM3MRI study were presented in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicating that overdiagnosis could be reduced by substituting traditional prostate biopsies with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted biopsies. The new results, now published in The Lancet Oncology, show that the addition of the Stockholm3 test, which was developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet, can be an important complement. It is a blood test that uses an algorithm to analyse a combination of protein markers, genetic markers and clinical data.
“The availability of MRI in healthcare will be a limiting factor. We now show that a novel blood test as adjunct to MRI can reduce the number of MRIs performed by a third. Compared with traditional screening, overdiagnosis is reduced by as much as 69 percent. At the same time, the number of biopsies is halved, while we can find just as many clinically significant tumours,” says Martin Eklund, associate professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, with joint responsibility for the STHLM3MRI study.
STHLM3MRI is a randomised study that was conducted between 2018 and 2021 with 12,750 male participants from Stockholm County. The participants provided an initial blood sample for PSA analysis and analysis using the new Stockholm3 test. Men with test results showing elevated PSA levels were then randomly selected for traditional biopsies or MRI. In the MRI group, biopsies were conducted strictly on suspected tumours identified by MRI.
“Separate use of the Stockholm3 test and MRI has previously been shown to be cost-effective. We have now analysed the cost-effectiveness when these tools are combined and will shortly report exciting results from that analysis,” Tobias Nordström concludes.
The research was financed by the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Karolinska Institutet, Hagstrandska Minnesfonden, Region Stockholm, the Swedish Order of Druids, the Åke Wiberg Foundation, the Swedish e-Science Research Center (SeRC) and Prostatacancerförbundet (the Prostate Cancer Association). Early validation was financed by EIT Health.
Henrik Grönberg, Martin Eklund and Tobias Nordström are partners of the company A3P Biomedical AB, which holds the development rights of the Stockholm3 test.
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More than one in ten COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals caught the infection in hospital during the first pandemic wave say researchers conducting the world’s largest study of severe COVID-19.
The research into hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) was led by Dr Jonathan Read from Lancaster University with colleagues from other UK universities including the Universities of Liverpool, Edinburgh, Birmingham and Imperial College London, and is published in The Lancet today, Thursday August 12th.
The researchers examined records of COVID-19 patients in UK hospitals enrolled in the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium (ISARIC) Clinical Characterisation Protocol UK (CCP-UK) study, who became ill before 1st August 2020.
They found that at least 11.1% of COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals were infected after admission. The proportion of COVID-19 patients infected in hospital also rose to between 16% and 20% in mid-May 2020, long after the peak of admissions in the first wave.
The researchers said: “We estimate between 5,699 and 11,862 patients admitted in the first wave were infected during their stay in hospital. This is, unfortunately, likely to be an underestimate, as we did not include patients who may have been infected but discharged before they could be diagnosed.”
Dr Jonathan Read, lead author at Lancaster University, said “Controlling viruses like SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has been difficult in the past, so the situation could have been much worse. However, infection control should remain a priority in hospitals and care facilities.”
Dr Chris Green, University of Birmingham, said: “There are likely to be a number of reasons why many patients were infected in these care settings. These include the large numbers of patients admitted to hospitals with limited facilities for case isolation, limited access to rapid and reliable diagnostic testing in the early stages of the outbreak, the challenges around access to and best use of PPE, our understanding of when patients are most infectious in their illness, some misclassification of cases due to presentation with atypical symptoms, and an under-appreciation of the role of airborne transmission.”
There were marked differences in the numbers of patients infected in hospital according to the type of care provided. Hospitals providing acute and general care had lower proportions of hospital acquired infections (9.7%) than residential community care hospitals (61.9%) and mental health hospitals (67.5%), which reflects the outbreaks seen in care-homes.
Professor Calum Semple, University of Liverpool, said: “The reasons for the variation between settings that provide the same type of care requires urgent investigation to identify and promote best infection control practice. Research has now been commission to find out what was done well and what lessons need to be learned to improve patient safety.”
Dr Anne Marie Docherty, University of Edinburgh, said: “The underlying reasons for these high rates of transmission in hospitals at the peak of the first wave must be investigated, so that we can improve safety and outcomes for our patients. Rates are considerably lower a year on, and people should not be deterred from attending hospital if they are unwell.”
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Most children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) don’t outgrow the disorder, as widely thought. It manifests itself in adulthood in different ways and waxes and wanes over a lifetime, according to a study published Aug.13 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
“It’s important for people diagnosed with ADHD to understand that it’s normal to have times in your life where things maybe more unmanageable and other times when things feel more under control,” said lead researcher Margaret Sibley, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a researcher at Seattle Children’s Research Institute.
Study authors from 16 institutions in the United States, Canada, and Brazil said decades of research characterize ADHD as a neurobiological disorder typically first detected in childhood that persists into adulthood in approximately 50% of cases. But this study found just 10% of children completely outgrow it.
“Although intermittent periods of remission can be expected in most cases, 90% of children with ADHD in the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD continued to experience residual symptoms into young adulthood,” they wrote.
ADHD is characterized by two main cluster of symptoms, according to researchers. The inattentive symptoms look like disorganization, forgetfulness, and having trouble staying on task. Then there are also the hyperactive, impulsive symptoms. In children, those symptoms look like having a lot of energy, such as running around and climbing on things. In adults, it manifests more as verbal impulsivity, difficulty with decision-making, and not thinking before acting. The disorder affects people differently and looks different depending on what phase of life someone’s in.
Some people with ADHD also report a unique ability to hyper-focus. Olympic athletes Michael Phelps and Simone Biles have been open about their ADHD diagnosis.

Al aumentar los casos y las hospitalizaciones de personas de la tercera edad, los expertos ofrecen una advertencia: la covid puede tener un aspecto diferente en las personas de edad avanzada.Un día de marzo de 2020, Rosemary Bily se cansó tanto que apenas podía levantarse de la cama. “Dormía mucho”, dijo su yerno Rich Lamanno. “Estuvo exhausta durante casi todo un mes”. Bily, que ahora tiene 86 años, también presentó náuseas y diarrea, junto con una tos leve, y salió adelante en gran parte con Tylenol y Gatorade.Días más tarde, su marido, Eugene Bily, de 90 años, empezó a toser y también se aletargó.De no haber sido por una reunión familiar días antes, los hijos de los Bily no habrían sospechado del nuevo coronavirus. Podrían haber culpado a la gripe, o simplemente al avance de la edad. “Lo que oímos en la televisión fue ‘fiebre alta y dificultad para respirar’, pero ellos no tenían ninguno de esos síntomas”, recuerda Lamanno.Sin embargo, una decena de invitados se habían reunido en un restaurante de Rockville Centre, Long Island, a principios de ese mes para celebrar el cumpleaños de una sobrina, y uno a uno la mayoría de ellos cayó enfermo de covid, incluidos Lamanno y su esposa.Cuando los síntomas se extendieron, los médicos dijeron a la preocupada familia que lo más probable es que los Bily tuvieran COVID-19. Como las pruebas eran escasas en ese momento, ninguno de los dos se sometió a ellas; la familia también temía llevarlos a los hospitales locales, que estaban desbordados. No obstante, las pruebas posteriores de anticuerpos confirmaron que Eugene y Rosemary Bily, que viven en Oceanside, Nueva York, habían contraído y sobrevivido al virus mucho antes de que se aprobara o estuviera disponible cualquier vacuna.Lamanno fuera de la casa de sus suegros en OceansideGregg Vigliotti para The New York TimesLa población mayor de 65 años, más vulnerable a los efectos del virus, se vacunó pronto contra la COVID-19 y tiene la tasa más alta de Estados Unidos: más del 80 por ciento está totalmente vacunada. Sin embargo, con el nuevo aumento de las infecciones, así como el incremento de las hospitalizaciones entre los adultos mayores, un nuevo estudio a gran escala publicado en Journals of Gerontology proporciona una advertencia oportuna: la covid puede tener un aspecto diferente en los pacientes de edad avanzada.“La gente espera que haya fiebre, tos y dificultad para respirar”, afirma Allison Marziliano, autora principal del estudio. Es psicóloga social y de la salud en los Institutos Feinstein de Investigación Médica, que forman parte del gran sistema Northwell Health del estado de Nueva York.Pero cuando los investigadores rastrearon las historias clínicas electrónicas de casi 5000 personas, todas mayores de 65 años, que fueron hospitalizadas por covid en una decena de hospitales de Northwell en marzo y abril de 2020, descubrieron que un tercio había llegado con síntomas inesperados.Al buscar a través de los registros mediante el uso de un software de lenguaje, el equipo encontró que alrededor de una cuarta parte de los pacientes mayores informó de un deterioro funcional. “Se trataba de caídas, fatiga, debilidad, dificultad para caminar o levantarse de la cama”, explicó Marziliano.El once por ciento experimentó alteraciones del estado mental: “confusión, agitación, olvido, letargo”, agregó. Alrededor de la mitad del grupo con síntomas atípicos también sufría al menos uno de los problemas clásicos de la COVID-19: fiebre, problemas para respirar, tos.“Los médicos deberían saberlo, los adultos mayores deberían saberlo, sus cuidadores deberían saberlo: si se observan ciertos síntomas atípicos, podría tratarse de covid”, advirtió Marziliano.La tasa de síntomas atípicos aumentó de manera significativa con la edad, al afectar a cerca del 31 por ciento de las personas de 65 a 74 años, pero a más del 44 por ciento de los mayores de 85 años. Esos síntomas eran más frecuentes en las mujeres, en los pacientes negros (pero no en los hispanos) y en los que padecían otras enfermedades crónicas, en particular diabetes o demencia.Dado que las personas del grupo atípico eran menos propensas a experimentar problemas respiratorios y a requerir ventilación, era menos probable que necesitaran cuidados intensivos. Pero ambos grupos pasaron casi diez días en el hospital, y aproximadamente un tercio de cada grupo murió.Eugene Bily, a la derecha, recibe cuidados paliativos a domicilio, y Rosemary Bily se ha recuperado totalmente del virus. “A ella le va bien”, dijo Lamanno. “Ha retomado su vida normal”.Gregg Vigliotti para The New York Times“Estas personas estuvieron en el hospital el mismo tiempo”, afirmó Marziliano. “Su tasa de mortalidad fue igual de alta. Así que esto no debería descartarse”.La investigación refleja los hallazgos de otros estudios más pequeños sobre personas mayores realizados al principio de la pandemia en Estados Unidos y Europa. Durante un brote de covid en una residencia de ancianos de Providence, Rhode Island, por ejemplo, un estudio de la Universidad de Brown descubrió que el síntoma más común era la pérdida de apetito, seguido de letargo, diarrea y fatiga.“No necesariamente nos sorprende esto”, comentó Maria Carney, geriatra y autora del estudio de Northwell. “Los adultos mayores no siempre se presentan como otros adultos. Puede que no tengan fiebre. Sus metabolismos son diferentes”.Los diabéticos más jóvenes, por ejemplo, pueden sudar y experimentar palpitaciones si baja su nivel de azúcar en la sangre, explicó Carney. Una persona mayor con una disminución del azúcar en la sangre podría desmayarse sin previo aviso. Las personas mayores que sufren depresión pueden tener pérdida de apetito o insomnio, pero no necesariamente sentirse tristes.En mayo de 2020, Carney recibió noticias de una hija preocupada por su madre, que tenía más de 80 años y se había debilitado de manera repentina. “No tenía fiebre ni tos, pero no era ella misma”, recordó Carney. Los médicos de una sala de urgencias local le diagnosticaron una infección del tracto urinario y le recetaron antibióticos, informó la hija. Sin embargo, cinco días después, el estado de su madre empeoraba. “Necesita una prueba de covid”, aconsejó Carney.Diagnosticar con rapidez la COVID-19 en pacientes de edad avanzada puede suponer una gran diferencia. “Ahora tenemos cosas que ofrecer que no teníamos en la primera oleada”, dijo Eleftherios Mylonakis, jefe de enfermedades infecciosas de la Facultad de Medicina Warren Alpert de la Universidad de Brown, que dirigió el estudio de la residencia de ancianos de Providence. “Tenemos una mejor comprensión, más tratamientos y mejor apoyo”.Entre las mejoras: el uso de fármacos anticoagulantes para evitar la formación de coágulos y el uso de anticuerpos monoclonales (el tratamiento que recibió el expresidente Donald Trump en el hospital Walter Reed de Bethesda, Maryland) que refuerzan el sistema inmunitario. Sin embargo, añadió Mylonakis, “es primordial iniciar cualquier tipo de tratamiento de manera temprana”.Entender que algo tan vago como la debilidad, la confusión o la pérdida de apetito puede ser señal de una infección por covid también puede ayudar a proteger a amigos y familiares, que pueden aislarse y hacerse las pruebas ellos mismos. “No solo ayuda al individuo, sino que también puede contener la propagación del virus”, afirma Mylonakis.Un diagnóstico de covid también puede evitar pruebas y procedimientos innecesarios. “Podemos evitar pruebas innecesarias, pinchar y hurgar y hacer tomografías”, dijo Carney. Las tomografías son caras, engorrosas y llevan tiempo de programación y análisis; un hisopo nasal para covid es rápido, relativamente barato y ahora está ampliamente disponible.Con la generalización de la vacunación, los síntomas de la COVID-19 en los adultos mayores pueden ser aún más sutiles. La fiebre es fácil de medir, y la dificultad para respirar enviará a cualquiera a un servicio de urgencias, señaló Carney, mientras que “no necesariamente notamos si alguien ha dejado de comer”.Su consejo, para los pacientes de edad avanzada y sus cuidadores y médicos, es estar atentos a los cambios que se producen de manera apresurada, en cuestión de días. “Cuando hay un cambio en el comportamiento, físico o cognitivo, puede no parecer una infección, pero hay que mantener la covid en lo más alto de la lista”, recomendó.La mujer con la hija preocupada en efecto había contraído el virus; murió en un hospital.Pero los Bily se recuperaron y siguen viviendo en su casa de dos pisos de Oceanside. Eugene Bily tuvo muchos problemas de salud incluso antes de la pandemia. En los últimos 18 meses, fue sometido a dos operaciones de cadera y a varias otras hospitalizaciones. En junio, empezó a recibir cuidados paliativos en casa.No obstante, Rosemary Bily se recuperó por completo del virus. A sus 86 años, va en auto al supermercado y a la farmacia, visita su peluquería cada semana, se mantiene en contacto con la familia a través del iPad y el celular y ayuda a cuidar a sus nietas.“Le va bien”, comentó Lamanno. “Ha retomado su vida normal”.

Foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha increased the diversity of gut microbes and led to lower levels of inflammation.Fermented foods like yogurt, kimchi, sauerkraut and kombucha have long been dietary staples in many parts of the world. Indeed, for thousands of years, different cultures relied on fermentation to produce bread and cheese, preserve meats and vegetables, and enhance the flavors and textures of many foods. Now scientists are discovering that fermented foods may have intriguing effects on our gut. Eating these foods may alter the makeup of the trillions of bacteria, viruses and fungi that inhabit our intestinal tracts, collectively known as the gut microbiome. They may also lead to lower levels of body-wide inflammation, which scientists increasingly link to a range of diseases tied to aging.The latest findings come from a study published in the journal Cell that was carried out by researchers at Stanford University. They wanted to see what impact fermented foods might have on the gut and immune system, and how it might compare to eating a relatively healthy diet full of fruits, vegetables, beans, whole grains and other fiber-rich foods.For the study, the researchers recruited 36 healthy adults and randomly split them into groups. One group was assigned to increase their consumption of fiber-rich plant foods, while a second group was instructed to eat plenty of fermented foods, including yogurt, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha and kimchi. These foods are made by combining milk, vegetables and other raw ingredients with microorganisms like yeast and bacteria. As a result, fermented foods are often teeming with live microorganisms, as well as byproducts of the fermentation process that include various vitamins and lactic and citric acids.The participants followed the diets for 10 weeks while the researchers tracked markers of inflammation in their blood and looked for changes in their gut microbiomes. By the end of the study, the first group had doubled their fiber intake, from about 22 grams per day to 45 grams daily, which is roughly triple the average American intake. The second group went from consuming almost no fermented foods to eating about six servings a day. Although six servings might sound like a lot, it does not take much to get there: One cup of yogurt for breakfast, a 16-ounce bottle of kombucha tea at lunch, and a cup of kimchi at dinner amounts to six daily servings.After the 10-week period, neither group had significant changes in measures of overall immune health. But the fermented food group showed marked reductions in 19 inflammatory compounds. Among the compounds that showed declines was interleukin-6, an inflammatory protein that tends to be elevated in diseases such as Type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis. The high-fiber group, in contrast, did not show an overall decrease in the same inflammatory compounds.For people in the fermented foods group, the reductions in inflammatory markers coincided with changes in their guts. They began to harbor a wider and more diverse array of microbes, which is similar to what other recent studies of people who eat a variety of fermented foods have shown. The new research found that the more fermented foods people ate, the greater the number of microbial species that bloomed in their guts. Yet, surprisingly, just 5 percent of the new microbes that were detected in their guts appeared to come directly from the fermented foods that they ate.Fresh kimchi, or Korean fermented vegetables, are an increasingly popular item at many supermarkets.Lanna Apisukh for The New York Times“The vast majority came from somewhere else, and we don’t know where,” said Justin Sonnenburg, an author of the new study and a professor of microbiology and immunology at Stanford. “I think there were either low level microbes below the level of detection that bloomed, or the fermented foods did something that allowed for the rapid recruitment of other microbes into the gut environment.”Higher levels of gut microbiome diversity are generally thought to be a good thing. Studies have linked it to lower rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, metabolic disease and other ills. People who live in industrialized nations tend to have less microbial diversity in their guts than those living in more traditional, nonindustrialized societies. Some scientists speculate that modern lifestyle factors like diets high in processed foods, chronic stress and physical inactivity may suppress the growth of potentially beneficial gut microbes. Others argue that the correlation between diverse microbiomes and good health is overblown, and that the low levels of microbiome diversity typically seen in people living in developed nations may be suitably adapted to a modern world.One subject on which there is usually little disagreement among nutrition experts is the benefits of a high-fiber diet. In large studies, people who consume more fruits, vegetables, nuts and other fiber-rich foods tend to have lower rates of mortality and less chronic disease. Fiber is considered good for gut health: Microbes in the gut feed on fiber and use it to produce beneficial byproducts like short-chain fatty acids, which can reduce inflammation. Some studies also suggest that eating a lot of fiber promotes a diverse microbiome.The Stanford researchers expected that consuming a high-fiber diet would have a big impact on the makeup of the microbiome. Instead, the high-fiber group tended to show few changes in their microbial diversity. But when the scientists looked closer, they discovered something striking. People who started out with higher levels of microbial diversity had reductions in inflammation on the high-fiber diet, while those who had the least microbial diversity had slight increases in inflammation when they ate more fiber.The researchers said they suspect that the people with low microbiome diversity may have lacked the right microbes to digest all the fiber they consumed. One finding that supports this: The high-fiber group had unexpectedly large amounts of carbohydrates in their stool that had not been degraded by their gut microbes. One possibility is that their guts needed more time to adapt to the high-fiber diet. But ultimately this finding could explain why some people experience bloating and other uncomfortable gastrointestinal issues when they eat a lot of fiber, said Christopher Gardner, another author of the study.“Maybe the challenges that some people have with fiber is that their microbiomes aren’t prepared for it,” said Dr. Gardner, the director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center.One question that the researchers hope to answer in the future is what would happen if people simultaneously ate more fermented foods as well as more fiber. Would that increase the variety of microbes in their guts and improve their ability to digest more fiber? Would the two have a synergistic effect on inflammation?Suzanne Devkota, the director of Microbiome Research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new study, said it has long been assumed that eating fermented foods had health benefits but that the new research provides some of the first “hard evidence” that it can influence the gut and inflammation. “We were always a little reluctant to make comments about fermented foods being beneficial, particularly from an inflammatory standpoint, because there was really no data behind that,” she said.Dr. Devkota cautioned that the findings should not deter anyone from eating fiber-rich foods, because fiber has so many health benefits beyond its impact on the gut. She consumes a lot of fiber and fermented foods herself and often recommends that patients at Cedars-Sinai who have conditions like inflammatory bowel disease do the same. “This doesn’t change what I’ve been recommending,” she added. “But I’d probably switch a little more toward encouraging people to consume fermented foods because now I have data to point to that suggests there’s some anti-inflammatory properties.”Dr. Devkota said more research was needed to better understand the links between fermented foods and overall health. But she suggested that one reason fermented foods may be beneficial is because the microorganisms they contain are constantly producing many nutrients during the fermentation process. “A jar of sauerkraut is a living food with stuff that is actively being produced, like vitamins,” she said. “When you eat a fermented food, you’re consuming all of those microbially produced chemicals that are good for you.”

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage sourceGetty ImagesUS drug regulators have given approval for immunocompromised Americans to get an additional Covid jab as a booster to help stave off infection and illness.The order issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) affects around 10 million people, including transplant recipients and cancer patients.It marks the first time that US health officials have indicated that booster shots may be necessary to fight Covid.Several others countries have begun providing booster jabs to some groups. The issue of booster vaccines will be discussed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccines panel at a meeting on Friday. If approved by the group, boosters could become available by this weekend.Experts say the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson may not sufficiently protect some people, especially those who have a weakened immune system.All three vaccines are currently approved in the US under an emergency use authorisation. Pfizer, which has applied for full authorisation, has lobbied US and European regulators to approve a third booster dose.It comes as evidence grows that antibody protection from vaccines may wear off over time, and as some people seek their third dose on the black market. On Thursday, US disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said boosters may only be needed for those whose immune systems are low.”We don’t feel at this particular point that apart from the immune-compromised, we don’t feel we need to give boosters right now,” the advisor to President Joe Biden told CBS.Meanwhile, the World Health Organization, has called for a moratorium on booster shots until at least the end of September to allow every country to vaccinate at least 10% of their population.Israel has already provided booster shots to people over 60 who were vaccinated at least five months earlier. The UK, France and Germany had plans to begin distributing them starting in September. In Chile, which began giving booster shots on Wednesday to people vaccinated with the Chinese Sinovac vaccine, queues forms outside clinics as the elderly scrambled to increase their immunity.Other countries planning a booster rollout include Sweden, the UAE, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea.In other Covid news:The weekly average number of cases has climbed 25%, CDC Director Rachel Wolensky said on Thursday, with about 113,000 per day last week. She added that 90% of the US is now seeing substantial transmission, meaning masks should be worn indoors in those regionsCalifornia has become the first US state to require public and private school teachers and staff to be vaccinatedThe Department of Health and Human Services is requiring its 25,000 health workers to get vaccinatedFlorida’s Broward County, one of the largest school districts in the state, has said they will require students to wear masks despite a threat from the Republican governor to withhold funds from schools with mask mandatesMore Texas school districts are defiantly requiring students to be masked, despite the governor’s ban on local governments issuing Covid mandatesYou may also be interested in:

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage sourceGetty ImagesMiddle-aged spread cannot be blamed on a waning metabolism, according to an unprecedented analysis of the body’s energy use. The study, of 6,400 people, from eight days old up to age 95, in 29 countries, suggests the metabolism remains “rock solid” throughout mid-life.It peaks at the age of one, is stable from 20 to 60 and then inexorably declines. Researchers said the findings gave surprising new insights about the body. Ripped musclesThe metabolism is every drop of chemistry needed to keep the body going. And the bigger the body – whether that is ripped muscles or too much belly fat – the more energy it will take to run.So the researchers tweaked their measurements, adjusting for body size, to compare people’s metabolism “pound for pound”. The study, published in the journal Science, found four phases of metabolic life:birth to age one, when the metabolism shifts from being the same as the mother’s to a lifetime high 50% above that of adults a gentle slowdown until the age of 20, with no spike during all the changes of pubertyno change at all between the ages of 20 and 60a permanent decline, with yearly falls that, by 90, leave metabolism 26% lower than in mid-life”It is a picture we’ve never really seen before and there is a lot of surprises in it,” one of the researchers, Prof John Speakman, from the University of Aberdeen, said.”The most surprising thing for me is there is no change throughout adulthood – if you are experiencing mid-life spread you can no longer blame it on a declining metabolic rate.”Childhood malnutritionOther surprises came from what the study did not find. There was no metabolic surge during either puberty or pregnancy and no slowdown around the menopause. The high metabolism in the first years of life also emphasise how important a moment it is in development and why childhood malnutrition can have lifelong consequences. “When people talk about metabolism, they think diet and exercise – but it is deeper than that, we are actually watching your body, your cells, at work,” Prof Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News.”They are incredibly busy at one year old and when we see declines with age, we are seeing your cells stopping working.”image sourceGetty ImagesPeople’s metabolism was measured using doubly labelled water.Made from heavier forms of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up water, this can be tracked as it leaves the body.But doubly labelled water is incredibly expensive, so it took researchers working together across 29 countries to gather data on 6,400 people.Drug dosesThe researchers said fully understanding the shifting metabolism could have implications in medicine.Prof Pontzer said it could help reveal whether cancers spread differently as the metabolism changes and if drug doses could be adjusted during different phases.And there is even discussion about whether drugs that modify the metabolism could slow diseases of old age.Drs Rozalyn Anderson and Timothy Rhoads, from the University of Wisconsin, said the “unprecedented” study had already led to “important new insights into human metabolism”.And it “cannot be a coincidence” diseases of old age kicked in as the metabolism fell. Obesity epidemicProf Tom Sanders, from King’s College London, said: “Interestingly, they found very little differences in total energy expenditure between early adult life and middle age – a time when most adults in developed countries put on weight. “These findings would support the view that the obesity epidemic is fuelled by excess food energy intake and not a decline in energy expenditure.”Dr Soren Brage, from the University of Cambridge, said the total amount of energy used had been “notoriously difficult to measure”.”We urgently need to turn our attention not only to the global energy crisis defined by the burning of fossil fuels but also the energy crisis that is caused by not burning enough calories in our own bodies.”Follow James on Twitter.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingimage sourceGetty ImagesMiddle-aged spread cannot be blamed on a waning metabolism, according to an unprecedented analysis of the body’s energy use. The study, of 6,400 people, from eight days old up to age 95, in 29 countries, suggests the metabolism remains “rock solid” throughout mid-life.It peaks at the age of one, is stable from 20 to 60 and then inexorably declines. Researchers said the findings gave surprising new insights about the body. Ripped musclesThe metabolism is every drop of chemistry needed to keep the body going. And the bigger the body – whether that is ripped muscles or too much belly fat – the more energy it will take to run.So the researchers tweaked their measurements, adjusting for body size, to compare people’s metabolism “pound for pound”. The study, published in the journal Science, found four phases of metabolic life:birth to age one, when the metabolism shifts from being the same as the mother’s to a lifetime high 50% above that of adults a gentle slowdown until the age of 20, with no spike during all the changes of pubertyno change at all between the ages of 20 and 60a permanent decline, with yearly falls that, by 90, leave metabolism 26% lower than in mid-life”It is a picture we’ve never really seen before and there is a lot of surprises in it,” one of the researchers, Prof John Speakman, from the University of Aberdeen, said.”The most surprising thing for me is there is no change throughout adulthood – if you are experiencing mid-life spread you can no longer blame it on a declining metabolic rate.”Childhood malnutritionOther surprises came from what the study did not find. There was no metabolic surge during either puberty or pregnancy and no slowdown around the menopause. The high metabolism in the first years of life also emphasise how important a moment it is in development and why childhood malnutrition can have lifelong consequences. “When people talk about metabolism, they think diet and exercise – but it is deeper than that, we are actually watching your body, your cells, at work,” Prof Herman Pontzer, from Duke University, told BBC News.”They are incredibly busy at one year old and when we see declines with age, we are seeing your cells stopping working.”image sourceGetty ImagesPeople’s metabolism was measured using doubly labelled water.Made from heavier forms of the hydrogen and oxygen atoms that make up water, this can be tracked as it leaves the body.But doubly labelled water is incredibly expensive, so it took researchers working together across 29 countries to gather data on 6,400 people.Drug dosesThe researchers said fully understanding the shifting metabolism could have implications in medicine.Prof Pontzer said it could help reveal whether cancers spread differently as the metabolism changes and if drug doses could be adjusted during different phases.And there is even discussion about whether drugs that modify the metabolism could slow diseases of old age.Drs Rozalyn Anderson and Timothy Rhoads, from the University of Wisconsin, said the “unprecedented” study had already led to “important new insights into human metabolism”.And it “cannot be a coincidence” diseases of old age kicked in as the metabolism fell. Obesity epidemicProf Tom Sanders, from King’s College London, said: “Interestingly, they found very little differences in total energy expenditure between early adult life and middle age – a time when most adults in developed countries put on weight. “These findings would support the view that the obesity epidemic is fuelled by excess food energy intake and not a decline in energy expenditure.”Dr Soren Brage, from the University of Cambridge, said the total amount of energy used had been “notoriously difficult to measure”.”We urgently need to turn our attention not only to the global energy crisis defined by the burning of fossil fuels but also the energy crisis that is caused by not burning enough calories in our own bodies.”Follow James on Twitter.

A top White House adviser said monoclonal antibody treatments, sometimes underused, could still be crucial in helping people with Covid-19 avoid getting very sick.WASHINGTON — Facing overcrowded hospitals and an unrelenting surge of Delta variant cases around the country, the Biden administration on Thursday renewed its call for health providers to use monoclonal antibody treatments, which can help Covid-19 patients who are at risk of getting very sick.Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a White House adviser on racial equity in health, said at a news conference that federal “surge teams” deployed to hard-hit states were working to increase uptake of and confidence in the antibody drugs. They have already been administered to more than 600,000 people in the United States during the pandemic, she said, preventing hospitalizations and helping save lives. President Donald J. Trump received one such treatment when he was diagnosed with Covid-19 last year, before it had been authorized for emergency use.In states where vaccination has stalled and cases have soared, the treatments have become a key component of the federal strategy to reduce the toll of the worst outbreaks, underscoring how many Americans remain at risk.Distribution of doses, which are ordered by medical providers, increased fivefold from June to July. About 75 percent of the ordering is from regions of the country with low vaccination rates, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.The administration “continues to stand ready to assist states and territories and jurisdictions across the country to get more people connected” to the treatments, Dr. Nunez-Smith said on Thursday, though she emphasized that vaccination was still the best option for preventing Covid-19.Jeffrey D. Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, said the Biden administration has deployed more than 500 federal workers to help state health departments and hospitals combat the Delta variant, including emergency medical workers in Louisiana and Mississippi and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention teams in Tennessee, Illinois and Missouri.Dr. Nunez-Smith said the administration had conducted virtual trainings on how to administer the drugs for doctors and health system officials in Arizona, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. In Arizona, federal teams are offering the treatments at two sites, where none of the Covid-19 patients who had received them had subsequently been hospitalized.The treatments, which the federal government pays for and makes free to patients, mimic antibodies that the immune system generates naturally to fight the coronavirus. They have been shown to sharply reduce hospitalizations and deaths when given to patients soon after symptoms appear, typically by intravenous infusion. There is also evidence that they may be able to prevent the disease entirely in certain people exposed to the virus. Unlike coronavirus vaccines, which take as long as six weeks to provide full protection, the antibody treatments can be given to patients who are already sick, with a more immediate effect.The latest data from the Department of Health and Human Services shows that just under half of the distributed supply of the treatments has been used, by more than 6,000 hospitals and other provider sites, dating back to late last year. The federal government relies on providers and state health departments to report their usage numbers and does not track the demographics of the patients who receive the drugs.Dr. Nunez-Smith said that shipments to Florida, which is experiencing a devastating surge in virus cases, had increased eightfold over the past month, and more than 108,000 courses of the treatments were shipped around the country in July.Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Thursday introduced a “rapid response unit” for administering the Regeneron treatment in Jacksonville, saying that the state would set up similar sites in other cities.Interest in the monoclonal antibodies has been spotty throughout the pandemic. When they were authorized last year, the treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly were expected to be in high demand and to serve as a bridge in fighting the pandemic before vaccinations ramped up. They were relentlessly promoted by Mr. Trump, who called the Regeneron treatment a “cure,” and top health officials in his administration.Still, they ended up sitting on refrigerator shelves in many places, even during recent surges. Many hospitals and clinics did not make the treatments a priority because of how time consuming and difficult to administer they were at the time, when they had to be given via intravenous infusion. Physicians can now administer the most frequently used treatment, from Regeneron, subcutaneously, or by injection..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-9s9ecg{margin-bottom:15px;}.css-16ed7iq{width:100%;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;padding:10px 0;background-color:white;}.css-pmm6ed{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}.css-pmm6ed > :not(:first-child){margin-left:5px;}.css-5gimkt{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:700;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.03em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.03em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.03em;letter-spacing:0.03em;text-transform:uppercase;color:#333;}.css-5gimkt:after{content:’Collapse’;}.css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;-webkit-transform:rotate(180deg);-ms-transform:rotate(180deg);transform:rotate(180deg);}.css-eb027h{max-height:5000px;-webkit-transition:max-height 0.5s ease;transition:max-height 0.5s ease;}.css-6mllg9{-webkit-transition:all 0.5s ease;transition:all 0.5s ease;position:relative;opacity:0;}.css-6mllg9:before{content:”;background-image:linear-gradient(180deg,transparent,#ffffff);background-image:-webkit-linear-gradient(270deg,rgba(255,255,255,0),#ffffff);height:80px;width:100%;position:absolute;bottom:0px;pointer-events:none;}.css-uf1ume{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:justify;-webkit-justify-content:space-between;-ms-flex-pack:justify;justify-content:space-between;}.css-wxi1cx{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:column;-ms-flex-direction:column;flex-direction:column;-webkit-align-self:flex-end;-ms-flex-item-align:end;align-self:flex-end;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-qjk116{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-qjk116 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-qjk116 em{font-style:italic;}.css-qjk116 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:visited{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#326891;text-decoration-color:#326891;}.css-qjk116 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}“These are important tools,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who has worked with Regeneron on a study that showed that the company’s antibody treatment may be able to prevent Covid-19 when given to people living with someone infected with the coronavirus. “They have shown substantial therapeutic effects.”Dr. Rajesh Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital who was an investigator for that study, said evidence of the benefit of the antibody treatments had only grown stronger in recent months. He said more needed to be done to educate physicians and patients on how effective they can be.“Patients need to know to call their physicians” and ask about the treatments, he said. “In 2020, people with mild Covid were told to stay home. That message needs to pivot to a more proactive message.”Regeneron has aired a series of television advertisements for its treatment this year.Virtually all Covid-19 patients receiving monoclonal antibodies during the Delta surge are getting the kind made by Regeneron, one of three that have been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration during the pandemic. The company estimated last week that its treatment was now reaching more than a quarter of eligible patients, up from less than 5 percent earlier in the pandemic.The F.D.A. last month expanded its emergency authorization of the Regeneron treatment so that it could be used to try to prevent Covid-19 in a small number of high-risk patients. They include people with certain health conditions who are not vaccinated or may not mount an adequate immune response, who have been exposed to the virus, or who live in nursing homes or prisons. It had previously been available, like the other monoclonal antibody treatments, only for high-risk patients who had already tested positive for the virus.The federal government in June indefinitely paused shipments of the first authorized monoclonal antibody treatment, from Eli Lilly, because new lab data suggested it would not work well in cases caused by the Beta and Gamma variants.The government has not ordered any doses of a third treatment, from GlaxoSmithKline and Vir, which is being used only minimally so far. Kathleen Quinn, a spokeswoman for GlaxoSmithKline, said the treatment was available at health care facilities in 26 states and U.S. territories.