Publisher Health

In a new study from Lund University and the University of Gothenburg, patients were interviewed about their experiences ten years after undergoing obesity surgery. The results show that the effect on eating and weight regulation persisted, whereas other problems, such as feelings of guilt about still not being healthy enough, remained.
“This is one of few follow-ups from a patients perspective so long after surgery,” says My Engström, researcher in nursing at the University of Gothenburg.
18 patients were interviewed in the study. All of them experienced that their eating habits and appetite were still affected after the operation: their bodies still objected, preventing them from eating as much as before surgery, and the reduction in cravings for unhealthy foods was maintained. Several participants also reported still being more easily affected by alcohol, which had consequences for their social life.
However, while the operation had brought several changes, many described their existence with their surgically altered body as the new normal, or their new everyday life.
“Several respondents found that one reason why they managed their lives with a gastrointestinal modification as well as they did was that they had been warned, and expected more complications than they actually suffered,” says My Engström.
“This was interesting to hear as just over 70 per cent of those we interviewed actually did experience an event that healthcare classified as a complication, such as malnutrition, abdominal pain, gall-bladder surgery or ileus.”
The participants reported still struggling to manage their lives and their weight after the surgery. This concerned aspects like how to support their children who were often also overweight. Some of the parents said that they felt resigned to their children’s weight problems; they tried to provide the best possible guidance but found it difficult.

A new patented method called Progressive Mechanoporation makes it possible to mechanically disrupt the membranes of cells for a short time period and let drugs or genes inside cells. In this way, researchers can test new therapies more easily than before.
Modern vaccines such as those against Sars-CoV-2 use tiny lipid spheres to transport genetic information into cells and let the body build up an immune defense against the virus. A team of scientists from Erlangen, Dresden, and London has now developed a completely new method to very efficiently deliver not only genes but also drugs and other substances into cells. The researchers from the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin (MPZPM) in Erlangen, the Technical University of Dresden, and The Institute of Cancer Research in London have named the method Progressive Mechanoporation and have now published it in the scientific journal Lab on a Chip. They have also filed a patent.
Ruchi Goswami and Alena Uvizl were part of a team of scientists led by Salvatore Girardo (Erlangen) and Jörg Mansfeld (Dresden/London) who have developed the Progressive Mechanoporation. They have built a special polymer biochip that contains a series of microchannels. Each microchannel is narrower than the previous one, finally reaching a size more than ten times thinner than a human hair. The scientists pass the cells through these channels, causing the cells to stretch more and more. The stretching creates pores in their cell membrane, allowing molecules to pass through these pores and get inside the cells. Once the cells have passed through the channels, the pores close again. The scientists demonstrated that Progressive Mechanoporation can deliver even very large proteins inside the cells. As a proof of concept the scientists used antibodies and CRISPR/Cas9, the genetic scissors whose discovery led to a last year’s Nobel Prize.
Potentially a new routine procedure for hospitals
“The big advantage of our method is that we can pass up to 10,000 cells per second through the chip,” explains Salvatore Girardo, leader of the technology development and service group Lab-on-a-Chip at the MPZPM. At the same time, the method is very gentle. Compared to other techniques, very few cells get damaged.
The Progressive Mechanoporation method could be used in drug development and allow pharmaceutical companies to efficiently test new molecule candidates. In addition, the process can be easily automated. Jörg Mansfeld, a research group leader at the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of TU Dresden and at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, adds: “I can envision that in the future, hospitals will be able to routinely examine and even treat patients’ cells using Progressive Mechanoporation.”
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Multiple sclerosis, or MS for short, manifests itself slightly differently in each person — which is why some call it “the disease of a thousand faces.” Arguably the worst manifestation of MS is its chronic progressive form. Unlike the more common relapsing-remitting variant (RRMS), in which sufferers are often symptom-free for months or even years, patients with the primary progressive form of the disease (PPMS) see their condition steadily deteriorate with no remissions.
Poorly insulated neurons die off
Today’s therapeutic approaches are based on the assumption that the immune system is making a mistake and waging an inappropriate attack on the layer of myelin that surrounds and insulates the nerve cells’ long, cable-like branches called axons. “In progressive MS, neurodegenerative processes steadily multiply and cause more and more neurons in the brain and spinal cord to die,” explains Dr. Alexander Brandt, lead author of the study that has now been published in the journal JAMA Neurology. “However, we still do not know what exactly causes this disease variant.”
Together with Professor Friedemann Paul from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint institution of Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), as well as eleven colleagues from Berlin, Irvine and Toronto, Brandt now hopes he has shed some more light on the subject. As the team reports in their study, it appears that the simple sugar N-acetylglucosamine, or GlcNAc for short, could play an important role in the development of progressive MS. Inside an organism, GlcNAc and other sugar molecules attach to proteins on the cell surface in the form of chains. This mechanism, which is known as glycosylation, controls various cell functions by forming branched structures from these sugar chains.
The sugar molecule could serve as a biomarker
“We studied 120 subjects from Irvine and were able to show that, in this particularly severe form of the disease, there are significantly lower concentrations of N-acetylglucosamine in the blood serum than there are in healthy people or patients with relapsing-remitting MS,” reports Brandt. At the time of this study, the physician was head of the Translational Neuroimaging laboratory in Paul’s Clinical Neuroimmunology group at Charité. Brandt has since moved to the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) as an associate professor of neurology, but remains a guest researcher at Charité.
“In another study of 180 patients from Berlin with relapsing-remitting or progressive MS, we also found that low serum levels of GlcNAc are associated with the development of the progressive form of the disease, clinical disability and neurodegeneration,” adds the study’s corresponding author, Professor Michael Demetriou of UC Irvine. “This opens up potential new avenues for identifying, at an early stage, which patients are at higher risk of progressive MS and adjusting their treatment accordingly.”
Human treatment studies now in the pipeline
Back in autumn 2020, Brandt, Demetriou and other researchers working with the then lead author Dr. Michael Sy from UC Irvine published a study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. They had administered GlcNAc to lactating mice and found that the animals passed on this simple sugar, which incidentally is also contained in human breast milk, to their offspring. This stimulated primary myelination of the neuronal axons in the young animals. “We also observed in the mouse experiments that N-acetylglucosamine activates myelin progenitor cells, thus promoting both primary myelination and the repair of damaged myelin,” says Brandt.
The researchers therefore hope that GlcNAc not only has potential as a suitable biomarker for progressive MS, but could also pave the way for new therapeutic strategies. “Our hope is that we can use GlcNAc and the associated glycosylation mechanism to promote myelin repair and thus reduce neurodegeneration,” summarizes Brandt. An initial, as-yet-unpublished phase I trial has just been completed with around 30 subjects, where the scientists investigated the safety of taking GlcNAc in certain doses. If it is shown to be safe, the scientists hope to be able to conduct further studies into this simple sugar’s possible efficacy as an MS therapy.
This study was funded in part by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the National Center for Complimentary and Integrative Health as well as the German Excellence Cluster NeuroCure.

Loss of smell, or anosmia, is one of the earliest and most commonly reported symptoms of COVID-19. But the mechanisms involved had yet to be clarified. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, Inserm, Université de Paris and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) determined the mechanisms involved in the loss of smell in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 at different stages of the disease. They discovered that SARS-CoV-2 infects sensory neurons and causes persistent epithelial and olfactory nervous system inflammation. Furthermore, in some patients with persistent clinical signs, anosmia is associated with prolonged epithelial and olfactory nervous system inflammation and lasting presence of the virus in the olfactory epithelium. These findings were published in the journal Science Translational Medicine on May 3, 2021.
Although COVID-19 caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is principally a respiratory disease, many patients present with non-respiratory symptoms. These include a sudden loss of smell in individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, which has been reported throughout the world since the beginning of the pandemic. Until recently, there has been uncertainty as to whether the virus plays a direct role in anosmia. According to one hypothesis generally accepted until now, it was assumed that a transient edema of the olfactory clefts inhibited airflow transporting odor molecules to the olfactory neurons (the familiar sensation of a blocked nose experienced during a common cold).
In a recent study, scientists from the Institut Pasteur, the CNRS, Inserm, Université de Paris, and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) shed light on the mechanisms involved in COVID-19-related anosmia. The study was conducted with COVID-19 patients and supplemented with tests on an animal model. This study unexpectedly demonstrates that nasopharyngeal swabs may test negative by standard RT-qPCR even if the virus is still present at the back of the nasal cavities, in the olfactory epithelium. In light of this discovery, SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis by nasal brushing may be envisaged in addition to nasopharyngeal swabbing for the PCR test in patients experiencing loss of smell.
This work also sheds light on the mechanism of COVID-19-related smell loss by revealing a series of chronological steps: Cilia carried by sensory neurons are lost post-viral infection. These cilia enable the sensory neurons to receive odor molecules; Virus present in sensory neurons; Disruption of the olfactory epithelium (sensory organ) integrity linked to apoptosis (i.e. cell death). The epithelium is organized into regular lamellae, which are destructured by coronavirus infection; Virus dissemination to the olfactory bulb, which is the first cerebral relay station in the olfactory system; Inflammation and viral RNA present in several regions of the brain.This study demonstrates that loss of smell is also caused by deterioration of the sensory organ at the back of the nasal cavities. “We observed that SARS-CoV-2 infects not only the sensory neurons, but also the olfactory nerve and the olfactory nerve centers in the brain,” comments Pierre-Marie Lledo, CNRS scientist, head of the Perception and Memory Unit (Institut Pasteur/CNRS), and co-author of the study.
“Another key finding from this study emerged from an observation of animal models, which revealed that once the virus enters the olfactory bulb, it spreads to other nerve structures, where it induces a major inflammatory response,” explains Hervé Bourhy, head of the Lyssavirus Epidemiology and Neuropathology Unit at the Institut Pasteur and co-author of the study. Infection of the olfactory neurons may therefore provide a gateway to the brain and explain why some patients develop various psychological clinical signs (anxiety disorders, depression) or those of a neurological nature (cognitive decline, susceptibility to developing a neurodegenerative disease), for which further studies are necessary.
Marc Lecuit, head of the Biology of Infection Unit (Institut Pasteur, Inserm, Université de Paris, AP-HP) and co-author of the study concludes: “According to our results, loss of smell in COVID-19 may persists for several months in some patients and this persistence of clinical signs may be attributed to the persistence of the virus and inflammation in the olfactory mucosa.” These observations should be used to adapt the diagnosis and management of long-term COVID-19 signs.
In summary, this study has led to the following 4 key findings: The virus can be detected by nasal brushing in instances where it is not detected by swabs; SARS-CoV-2 may persist in the olfactory epithelium for several months; SARS-CoV-2 infects sensory neurons and prompts immune cell recruitment in the sensory organ; SARS-CoV-2 may cause persistent inflammation of the olfactory epithelium and the olfactory nervous system.
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Meat that is certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture is less likely to be contaminated with bacteria that can sicken people, including dangerous, multidrug-resistant organisms, compared to conventionally produced meat, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The findings highlight the risk for consumers to contract foodborne illness — contaminated animal products and produce sicken tens of millions of people in the U.S. each year — and the prevalence of multidrug-resistant organisms that, when they lead to illness, can complicate treatment.
The researchers found that, compared to conventionally processed meats, organic-certified meats were 56 percent less likely to be contaminated with multidrug-resistant bacteria. The study was based on nationwide testing of meats from 2012 to 2017 as part of the U.S. National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS).
In order for meat to be certified organic by the USDA, animals can never have been administered antibiotics or hormones, and animal feed and forage such as grass and hay must be 100 percent organic. A longstanding concern about antibiotic use in livestock and livestock feed is the increased prevalence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. To monitor this trend, in 1996 the federal government developed NARMS to track antibiotic resistance in bacteria isolated from retail meats, farmed animals, and patients with foodborne illness in the U.S.
For their study, the Bloomberg School research team analyzed U.S. Food and Drug Administration-NARMS data from randomly sampled chicken breast, ground beef, ground turkey, and pork for any contamination and for contamination by multidrug-resistant organisms. The analysis covers four types of bacteria: Salmonella, Campylobacter, Enterococcus, and Escherichia coli.
The study covered a total of 39,348 meat samples, of which 1,422 were found to be contaminated with at least one multidrug-resistant organism. The rate of contamination was 4 percent in the conventionally produced meat samples and just under 1 percent in those that were produced organically.
The study was published May 12 in Environmental Health Perspectives.
“The presence of pathogenic bacteria is worrisome in and of itself, considering the possible increased risk of contracting foodborne illness,” says senior author Meghan Davis, DVM, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Bloomberg School. “If infections turn out to be multidrug resistant, they can be more deadly and more costly to treat.”
The analysis also suggested that the type of processing facility may influence the likelihood of meat contamination. Meat processors fall into three categories: exclusively organic, exclusively conventional, or those that handle both organic and conventional meats — so-called “split” processors. The study found that among conventional meats, those processed at facilities that exclusively handled conventional meats were contaminated with bacteria one-third of the time, while those handled at facilities that processed both conventional and organic meats were contaminated one-quarter of the time. The prevalence of multidrug-resistant bacteria was roughly the same in these two meat processor categories.
“The required disinfection of equipment between processing batches of organic and conventional meats may explain our findings of reduced bacterial contamination on products from facilities that process both types of meats,” says Davis.
The authors believe their findings have relevance for regulatory agencies and consumers. “How we raise animals matters,” says Davis. “As a veterinarian, I recognize that we sometimes need to use antibiotics to treat sick animals, but taking advantage of opportunities to reduce antibiotics use could benefit everyone. Consumer choice and regulatory oversight are two strategies to do this.”

Patients diagnosed with post-COVID-19 syndrome, also known as “PCS,” “COVID-19 long-haul syndrome” and “Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS COV-2,” experience symptoms such as mood disorders, fatigue and perceived cognitive impairment that can negatively affect returning to work and resuming normal activities, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
The study reports on the first 100 patients to participate in Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation program (CARP), one of the first multidisciplinary programs established to evaluate and treat patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome. The patients were evaluated and treated between June 1 and Dec. 31, 2020. They had a mean age of 45, and 68% were female. They were evaluated a mean of 93 days after infection.
The most common symptom of patients seeking evaluation for post-COVID-19 syndrome was fatigue. Of the patients in the study, 80% reported unusual fatigue, while 59% had respiratory complaints and a similar percentage had neurologic complaints. More than one-third of patients reported difficulties performing basic activities of daily living, and only 1 in 3 patients had returned to unrestricted work activity.
“Most patients in the study had no preexisting comorbidities prior to COVID-19 infection, and many did not experience symptoms related to COVID-19 that were severe enough to require hospitalization,” says Greg Vanichkachorn, M.D., medical director of Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation program and first author of the study. “Most of the patients had normal or nondiagnostic lab and imaging results, despite having debilitating symptoms. That’s among the challenges of diagnosing PCS in a timely way and then responding effectively.”
Nonetheless, the symptoms often resulted in significant negative effects as patients tried to return to normal daily activities, including work. “Most patients with whom we worked required physical therapy, occupational therapy or brain rehabilitation to address the perceived cognitive impairment,” says Dr. Vanichkachorn. “While many patients had fatigue, more than half also reported troubles with thinking, commonly known as ‘brain fog.’ And more than one-third of patients had trouble with basic activities of life. Many could not resume their normal work life for at least several months.”
Mayo Clinic developed the COVID-19 Activity Rehabilitation program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester in June 2020 to care for patients experiencing persistent symptoms after COVID-19 infection. In addition to Dr. Vanichkachorn, Mayo Clinic staff from many specialty fields are involved in diagnostics and treatment. Among services provided are psychosocial support for patients who frequently report feelings of abandonment, guilt and frustration during initial evaluation.
Mayo Clinic is conducting intensive research on post-COVID-19 syndrome, in part to better define how the condition presents across different socioeconomic groups and ethnicities. Prolonged symptoms, such as those experienced with post-COVID-19 syndrome, have been reported in prior epidemics.
“As the pandemic continues, we expect to see more patients who experience symptoms long after infection, and health care providers need to prepare for this, know what to look for, and know how to best provide for their patients’ needs,” says Dr. Vanichkachorn.
Patients who have recovered from acute infection shouldn’t wait to be evaluated if they are experiencing prolonged symptoms, though Dr. Vanichkachorn says providers should be judicious in recommending expensive diagnostic tests, which often aren’t covered by insurance and don’t reveal significant information.
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Materials provided by Mayo Clinic. Original written by Jay Furst. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Coal combustion by power plants and industry pollutes the air, causing many governments to implement mitigation actions and encourage cleaner forms of energy. Now, a new study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology indicates that in China, indoor air pollution from residential coal burning causes a disproportionate number of premature deaths from exposure to tiny, inhalable pollutants known as PM2.5.
In China, coal is still the largest source of energy, although recent mitigation actions have replaced some coal-fired power plants with petroleum- or natural gas-powered plants. Also, many coal-fired power plants and industrial boilers have installed equipment that reduces emissions. However, some households continue to use coal for heating and cooking, especially in rural areas, and the health impacts of this indoor PM2.5 exposure compared with other forms of indoor and outdoor exposure are largely unknown. Therefore, Shu Tao and colleagues wanted to quantify health risks of exposure to indoor and outdoor PM2.5 from coal used in the power, industrial and residential sectors in China from 1974 to 2014.
The researchers compiled data on coal consumption by power plants, industry, and rural and urban residences over the 40-year period. Using atmospheric chemical transport and statistical models, they calculated outdoor and indoor PM2.5 levels. Then, the team used exposure response functions — mathematical relationships that calculate health effects resulting from specific exposures — to estimate premature deaths caused by five diseases associated with PM2.5, including lung cancer and heart disease. From 1974 to 2014, the contribution of indoor residential coal use to overall PM2.5 exposure decreased in urban populations but remained steady in rural populations. The researchers calculated that in 2014, residential coal accounted for 2.9% of total energy use in China but 34% of premature deaths associated with PM2.5. The number of premature deaths caused by unit coal consumption in the residential sector was 40 times higher than that in the power and industrial sectors. These results indicate that efforts to reduce residential coal use should be a key focus of future air pollution mitigation actions in China, the researchers say.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
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Earthworms improve the soil by aerating it, breaking down organic matter and mineralizing nutrients. Now, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology have dug up another possible role: reducing the number and relative abundance of antibiotic-resistance genes (ARGs) in soils from diverse ecosystems. These results imply that earthworms could be a natural, sustainable solution to addressing the global issue of antibiotic resistance, the researchers say.
The overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals has caused ARGs to accumulate in soils, which could contribute to the rise in antibiotic-resistant infections. Earthworms consume tons of soil per year worldwide, and their guts have a unique combination of low-oxygen conditions, neutral pH and native microbial inhabitants that could have an effect on ARGs. However, the role of earthworms in the spread of antibiotic resistance has been controversial. Some studies in controlled settings suggest that their guts are hot spots for ARGs, which they can spread through soil with their movements, while other studies indicate that the earthworms’ guts can reduce ARG abundance by destroying host bacteria and mobile genetic elements. To better understand the issue, Yong-Guan Zhu and colleagues wanted to compare the microbiomes and ARGs of earthworm guts with those of soils from diverse ecosystems across China.
The researchers collected earthworms and surrounding soil samples from 28 provinces in China. Then, they analyzed the composition of microbial communities in the worms’ guts and the surrounding soil, finding that they differed between guts and soil and also among sites. In addition, the team found a lower number and relative abundance of ARGs in the earthworm guts than in the corresponding soil across all sampling sites. The earthworm guts also had lower levels of bacterial species that commonly host ARGs. These bacteria and their ARGs could be destroyed during digestion, or bacteria that live in the gut could out-compete them, the researchers say. In other experiments, they used controlled environments to show that the number and relative abundance of ARGs were higher in earthworm guts than in their feces, and that the addition of earthworms reduced ARGs in soil samples. These findings suggest that earthworms have the potential to mitigate these genes in soils as a form of natural bioremediation, the researchers say.
The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Actions Research Fellowship Program.
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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Gold leaf — gold metal hammered into thin sheets — is used by artists and crafters to gild picture frames, artwork and clothing. Despite its luxurious appearance, the material is affordable and available at most craft stores. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have developed gold leaf electrodes that, in combination with a CRISPR-based assay, could sensitively detect human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA in human samples. The method also could be modified to diagnose other viral infections.
Previous research indicates that about 80% of new cases of sexually transmitted infections, such as HPV and human immunodeficiency virus (known as HIV), take place in low-resource settings. In addition, over 90% of cervical cancer deaths, which are caused mainly by HPV, occur in these regions, according to the World Health Organization. But people in low-resource settings lack the facilities, trained personnel and money to conduct common diagnostic tests, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antibody detection. Therefore, Ariel Furst, Catherine Klapperich and colleagues wanted to develop a simple, affordable point-of-care test.
Using a sheet of 24K gold leaf, an adhesive, a stencil and a razor blade, the researchers made a three-electrode system that provided a readout in the presence of HPV DNA. On the surface of the electrodes, they attached DNA strands tagged with a dye. Then, they amplified DNA from cervical swab samples with a technique called loop-mediated isothermal amplification, which doesn’t require expensive PCR machines. They added the amplified DNA, along with a CRISPR Cas12a enzyme engineered to recognize an HPV sequence, to the surface of the electrode. In the presence of HPV DNA, Cas12a became activated, causing the enzyme to cut the dye-tagged DNA sequence, which changed the electrochemical signal. The assay, which costs only about $2.30 total per test (compared with $30-75 for existing tests), accurately detected HPV in cervical swabs from patients. The technology could be adapted to detect any viral infection, including SARS-CoV-2, the researchers say.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Dorf-Ebner Distinguished Faculty Fellow Award, the Boston University Precision Diagnostics Center, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the National Science Foundation.
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A new study led by the Centre for Nutraceuticals in the University of Westminster shows that pink drinks can help to make you run faster and further compared to clear drinks.
The researchers found that a pink drink can increase exercise performance by 4.4 per cent and can also increase a ‘feel good’ effect which can make exercise seem easier.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, is the first investigation to assess the effect of drink colour on exercise performance and provides the potential to open a new avenue of future research in the field of sports drinks and exercise.
During the study participants were asked to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes at a self-selected speed ensuring their rate of exertion remained consistent. Throughout the exercise they rinsed their mouths with either a pink artificially sweetened drink that was low in calories or a clear drink which was also artificially sweetened and low in calories.
Both drinks were exactly the same and only differed in appearance — the researchers added food dye to the pink drink to change the colour.
The researchers chose pink as it is associated with perceived sweetness and therefore increases expectations of sugar and carbohydrate intake.
Previous studies have also shown that rinsing the mouth with carbohydrates can improve exercise performance by reducing the perceived intensity of the exercise, so the researchers wanted to assess whether rinsing with a pink drink that had no carbohydrate stimulus could elicit similar benefits through a potential placebo effect.
The results show that the participants ran an average 212 metres further with the pink drink while their mean speed during the exercise test also increased by 4.4 per cent. Feelings of pleasure were also enhanced meaning participants found running more enjoyable.
Future exploratory research is necessary to find out whether the proposed placebo effect causes a similar activation to the reward areas of the brain that are commonly reported when rinsing the mouth with carbohydrates.
Talking about the study, Dr Sanjoy Deb, corresponding author on the paper from the University of Westminster, said: “The influence of colour on athletic performance has received interest previously, from its effect on a sportsperson’s kit to its impact on testosterone and muscular power. Similarly, the role of colour in gastronomy has received widespread interest, with research published on how visual cues or colour can affect subsequent flavour perception when eating and drinking.
“The findings from our study combine the art of gastronomy with performance nutrition, as adding a pink colourant to an artificially sweetened solution not only enhanced the perception of sweetness, but also enhanced feelings of pleasure, self-selected running speed and distance covered during a run.”
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Materials provided by University of Westminster. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.