How Can Your Weight Be Improved By Lingonberries?

New studies suggest that lingonberries could prevent weight gain and obesity-related diseases; in a study based on mice, researchers found that these berries helped to prevent obesity. The mice were genetically modified to become obese and develop features of obesity, and in the experiment the mice were fed a high fat diet for 13 weeks as a way of mimicking the fatty western diet. However, there were eight different groups of mice given eight different types of freeze-dried berry alongside the diet of fatty foods to see if the mice were affected in terms of weight gain. Two further control groups were given no berries, one of which ate the same high fat diet and another a low-fat diet. The final result was that all of the mice gained weight but the mice who were given the berries gained less weight. Lingonberries are a wild fruit popular in Scandinavia and, in studies, were the best at showing the lowest increase in body fat, cholesterol and blood sugar of all the high fat groups during the study. Naturally, as the study shows, the lingonberries aren’t an obesity cure which work on their own as a way to remove fat, but they could be an ingredient which could enable you to gain less weight as part of a healthy diet.

 

The research took place using six-week old mice who were engineered to develop obesity and pre-diabetes. The mice were split into 10 groups of 12 mice, and for 13 weeks they underwent the following:

- 8 groups were fed a high fat diet, where 45 per cent of their calories came from fat. This diet was supplemented with eight different freeze-dried berries which were freely available to them.

- 1 control group was fed a calorie-matched high fat diet without the berries.

- 1 control group was fed a low-fat diet, with 10 per cent of their calories from fat without the berries.

 

The body weight and food intake of the mice was monitored weekly, and at the end of the study the blood samples were assessed for sugar, insulin levels, cholesterol and other fats. The researchers also looked at bodily organs, including the spleen and liver, to see how much fat had built up. The energy intake was very much the same across all of the groups, with the exception of those eating blackcurrant and bilberries, who ate more food and calories. But the fasting blood sugar levels were much lower in the lingonberry and blackcurrant groups than the high fat controls. Both of these groups had glucose and insulin resistance levels similar to the mice in the low-fat diet group. Researchers believe that the lingonberries either fully or partially prevent the detrimental metabolic effects of a high fat diet – blackcurrants and bilberries had similar properties but weren’t as effective. The conclusion of the study was that the beneficial metabolic effects of the lingonberries could be helpful in preventing obesity and disorders related to being overweight. As part of a balanced diet and a regular exercise programme, lingonberries could help to maintain a healthy weight and prevent obesity-related disorders from developing. As with any diet, it’s important that you speak to your GP before undertaking any extreme changes to your dietary habits, as it could be detrimental to your health. But there has been no proof that adding lingonberries to your diet can do you any harm, so in moderation they could be the weight loss answer you’ve been looking for.

Categories: Blood Sugar, control group, diet, freeze dried, lingonberries, metabolic effects, Mice, new study, obesity related, prevent obesity, weight gain

How Does Neglect During Childhood Affect Development?

It is clear to us that childhood is a very important time for the development of a child. It is during this time that so many cognitive skills begin to make a big difference in the brain and personality and emotions begin to come out in a way that will change you the child for the rest of their lives. It makes sense, then, that if a child is to suffer neglect during this critical period their brain development is likely to suffer as a result.

 

Increasingly, science is showing that neglect could be considered as harmful to a child’s brain development as physical abuse. This might sound like an extreme way of putting it, but a new study has shown that this may be the case. This recent study looked at mice placed in isolation early on in their lives – although it may appear on the surface that the research can’t really tell us anything new, as it’s very clear that neglect is a very bad thing for a child to suffer is highly likely to affect the way that a child develops.

 

However, it seems that in this study there is actual a more scientific principal in mind rather than one of common sense. During the research, the team found that there were striking abnormalities in the tissues that make it possible for electrical signals to be sent to the brain. This suggests that neglect isn’t just bad on the level that a lack of social interaction altering skills and stunting cognitive development, but from a scientific perspective it actually alters the physical nature of the brain. This could mean that the child can never hope to develop beyond a certain level in some mental faculties due to the neglect.

 

“This is very strong evidence that changes in myelin cause some of the behavioural problems caused by isolation,” said one of the co-authors of the study, Gabriel Corfas, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School. The team placed mice that were 21 days old in isolation for two weeks, and then returned them to their colonies. When the mice that had been placed in isolation reached adolescence, the researchers compared their brains and their behaviour to other mice that hadn’t been isolated – in this case the isolation was to mimic the conditions suffered by a neglected child.

 

The mice that were placed in isolation were noted to be far more antisocial than other mice, with apparent deficits in memory. On further inspection it was noticed that their myelin, a cell layer that forms around neuronal networks, was unusually and unexpectedly thin, especially in the prefrontal cortex, which is a region of the brain that is thought to be critical to cognition and personality. It would seem that the isolation that the mice were placed in, actually made a big difference to their lives, not just in terms that it made them antisocial, but it also contributed towards damaging physical effects as well.

 

It has been shown many times that children who grow up in orphanages have similar behavioural and social problems, due to the isolated nature of their lives and inability to connect with a loving parent.

 

“This is incredibly important data, because it gives us the neural mechanisms associated with the deleterious changes in the brain that arise from neglect,” said Nathan Fox, who is a cognitive neuro-scientist at the University of Maryland.

 

It is therefore clear that we need to treat the neglect of children very seriously, as it has now we shown to have truly damaging effects on their wellbeing and ability to develop normally.

Categories: brain development, Child, child abuse, Isolation, mental problems, Mice, nbsp, neglect

Does Childhood Neglect Cause A Big Problem?

What do you think of when someone talks about childhood neglect? For some people the idea of neglect is certainly a bad thing and something that would seem to shame parents and anyone who is involved. But do we really consider that childhood neglect is such a bad thing. Clearly no-one is saying it’s a good thing or that people should be lauded by neglecting children. However, we might not think that it is appalling as certain other crimes against children such as physical abuse or sexual abuse. It’s only now that attitudes are beginning to change as we are starting to see the real problems that abuse can cause, not just emotionally but physically as well.

 

Science is now showing people the truth about the neglect of children, and it’s not painting a pretty picture at all. In fact, science is now showing that neglect is very dangerous for the health of a child, both in the sense that it can cause problems for their ability to interact socially, but also because neglect during childhood appears to affect a change in the brain that children will never be able to recover from.

 

So, is it possible then that childhood neglect might actually be more damaging that physical abuse or sexual abuse. One team of scientists decided to have a look into this and see if they could ascertain how much of an effect that neglect has on children. To do so, they looked at mice, which might seem like a strange thing to do, but mice have complex social structures much like humans do. Placing young mice in isolation, to simulate the realities of neglect among very young children, the researchers were able to study how the mice reacted on their return to normal society.

 

The team were able to notice that the mice who were put in isolation didn’t act normally on their return to living with other mice. They were seen to be anti-social in a way that mice that have grown up normally do not seem to be. In effect they were able to integrate back into their society after they had suffer the isolated conditions that would be the same as childhood neglect for children. This shows that children who are neglected will find it difficult to act normally when they grow up, and obviously shows on one level how bad that neglect is for children.

 

However, the researchers were able to look a little deeper into what might be causing these children to have trouble integrating into society after neglect. Perhaps you’d imagine that simply the emotional trauma is what would cause the problems, but apparently this is just the problem on the surface; the real issue is physical rather than emotional.

 

The researchers were able to learn that while the mice were in isolation their brains began to change. Certain cells that are important in terms of forming emotions and bonds were shown to be very thin in these mice. This shows that it is actually a physical change that happens and is the likely cause of the issues with the mice returning to their society.

 

With children who suffer neglect, it may be that they have the same problems and that their inability to function normally is caused by this. This worrying analysis suggests that we must treat the neglect of children very seriously, because it is likely to be damaging them for life, in ways that cannot be easily or ever fixed. Just like physical or sexual abuse, neglect has the power to ruin lives.

Categories: abuse, childhood, childhood neglect, Children, Mice, neglect, physical abuse, Sexual Abuse, society nbsp

Huntington"s Disease - Can Mice Be The Cure?

Huntington’s disease is a genetic disorder which generally affects people in their 40s or 50s, and primarily affects the brain – it results in a gradual loss of control of movement, memory and general mental ability. This condition is also linked to personality changes and depression, as well as some other mental illnesses. While there is no current treatment for HD, researchers have discovered many avenues for hope which could improve the quality of life for sufferers and their carers. This is an inherited condition which usually occurs in people who have a family history of the disease, and it is caused by a faulty gene on chromosome 4. In rare cases, there may not be a family history of the condition – in these cases, there may be a lack of diagnoses in the family or the condition being misdiagnosed as a mental illness with fidgetiness. Around 8 in every 100,000 people in the UK have HD, which accounts for around 4,800 people.  The chromosomes are where the body stores our genetic information, in the form of DNA, so HD affects both genders equally – this means that you can inherit it from your mother or father in equal measure. The symptoms begin to show in middle age, but some reports have shown that there is a link to developing the condition in early age and inheriting it from the father, as opposed to the mother.

 

There are a number of brain activities affected by HD and the symptoms become more apparent between 30 and 50 years of age. The early signs of the condition include uncontrollable muscular movements, memory problems, a change in mood and stumbling. The mood alterations are one of the earliest signs of the disease, which are then followed by issues with memory and abnormal movements. Death usually occurs 15 to 20 years after the first symptoms appear, usually as a result of other sedentary illnesses such as pneumonia or specific causes such as difficulty swallowing which leads to choking.

 

Having Huntington’s disease is a difficult disease to cope with, and one of the more common side effects in sufferers is depression. It’s difficult for researchers to know if this is caused by circumstance or if it is because of the brain that HD causes. Researchers believe that mice who have been genetically engineered to have a mutated human HD gene may become depressed, which could offer a huge insight into the condition and how it affects our mood. Unfortunately, researchers need to adapt an animals DNA in order to research how they deal with HD, as they get it naturally in contrast to humans. Having carried out basic behaviour tests in mice, they can tell which of the mice are ‘depressed’ by how apathetic they are, in the same way that humans become apathetic when they’re depressed. In the mice, when the mutant Huntington’s disease gene was turned off in the hypothalamus, the mice showed less depression during the behavioural test. This study is still in the early stages but shows that certain areas of the brain may contribute to depression in HD – follow-up studies may show how a dysfunctional hypothalamus could lead to depression. The research does mean that whole-brain approaches to treatment may be very effective in terms of HD. Those which target just the hypothalamus could be lacking in strength and may not be enough to control depression caused by the disease. This could be beneficial for researchers working on treatments such as gene silencing which could mean treatments are injected into specific brain areas.

Categories: Brain, condition, depression, Disease, family history, Huntington's disease, Mental Health, Mice, new study

Study Stitches Mice Together to Improve Ageing Heart

Researchers have drawn on an odd experimental technique invented more than a century ago, in order to make an important anti-ageing wellness discovery. Heterochronic parabiosis involves opening a flap of skin on the side of two mice and stitching the two together so that the same blood pumps through both creatures.

Stem cell biologist Amy Wagers and cardiologist Richard Lee, both of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, wondered if any of the circulating factors in young blood, such as hormones, might affect ageing hearts. Therefore, they and their team yoked together five two-year-old mice (which is downright ancient in mouse years) with two-month-old counterparts, using parabiosis. They also had a control group of 12 pairs of old mice paired together with 10 pairs of young mice.

Lee, who also practices at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, commented that the first result was ‘obviously positive’; the old mice’s heart tissue had thinned and softened – looking just as spry and supple as the 2-month-olds’ – after just four weeks of being connected. The old mice now had young hearts, while the young mice’s hearts stayed strong, but the team spent years trying to figure out why.

Less explained, ‘There have been factors found that are suggested to be ageing factors, but there has not been identification of a circulating factor that can go the other way, of turning the old tissue into younger tissue.’ SomaLogic, a protein-analysis company in Boulder, Colorado, finally helped the team to make a breakthrough, narrowing down the likely suspects to only 13 factors.

One of the suspects, growth differentiation factor 11, or GDF-11, appeared to explain the miraculous heart rejuvenation. The researchers report online in Cell that old mice injected with this protein for 30 days developed younger, stronger heart tissue. Lee noted, ‘It’s conceivable that this is just an interesting mouse story, but we’re hoping to get data that might tell us that it pertains to humans.’

According to cardiologist Deepak Srivastava of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, California, who was not involved in the work, ‘This is probably the first handle we have on what makes the heart young and what makes it old.’  However, cardiologist Gerald Dorn of Washington University in St. Louis, says the use of the parabiosis lends the research a gothic, macabre flavour, adding, ‘I was looking to see whether Tim Burton or Vincent Price were a part of the experimental design.’

Categories: Heterochronic parabiosis, Mice, Research

Radioactive Bacteria Can Deal With Cancer in Mice

Pancreatic cancer is known to be very deadly because it has a tendency to spread, or metastasis, to other parts of the body before the symptoms of the disease appear. In previous work in mice, Claudia Gravekamp of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has been able to show that weakened listeria bacteria fight against tumour tissue but not healthy tissue. Further to that, the bacteria seem to home in on the metastatic tumours.

To take advantage of this and make the most of the opportunity to do some damage to cancer, her team have now armed the bacteria with a radioactive payload – attaching the isotope rhenium-188 to the listeria with a form of antibody.

They gave mice different degrees of human pancreatic tumours and then injected them every day with the powered-up bacteria for a week, giving them a week off before four more days of treatment injections. A few days later, there were on average 90 per cent fewer of the tumours in this group than there were in untreated mice, and the average weights of original pancreatic tumours had decreased by 64 per cent.

After a week, the animals’ livers and kidneys had completely cleared themselves of the radioactive bacteria from their systems, with no damage to either organ. This was a very important aspect of study as there would be no use treating the cancer only to poison the body with something else.

Gravekamp believes that the radiation affected the metastatic tumours most because cells there were still rapidly multiplying, leaving their chromosomes more vulnerable to damage than those in healthy tissues or in the original tumour. The bacteria also play a part by producing reactive oxygen molecules that again damage the tumour’s DNA.

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Radioactive Bacteria Can Deal With Cancer in Mice

Categories: Bacteria, cancer, metastatic tumours, Mice, pancreatic tumours, radioactive, radioactive bacteria, tumour, tumours