Author Archives: drlewis

Repetitive head injuries that occur during contact sports and military service may accelerate the aging process by increasing the build-up of beta-amyloid in the brain, leading to worse disease and an increased likelihood of developing dementia. In particular, boxers fared the worst among athletes and military veterans with a history of head injuries. These findings, which currently appear online in the journal Acta Neuropathologica, is the first to establish the age-dependent deposition of beta-amyloid in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), and may lead to the development of diagnostic tools and treatments for the long lasting effects of head trauma.

Researchers examined a large group of deceased athletes and military veterans with pathologically diagnosed CTE. They compared the number of individuals who developed clumps or deposits of beta-amyloid in the brain in this CTE group to a published group of normal individuals ages 1 to 100. They found that athletes and military veterans with CTE were four times more likely to develop beta-amyloid deposits in their brains and that in general this occurred 10-15 years earlier than in the normal aging group. In addition, researchers looked within the group of athletes and compared those subjects with beta-amyloid to those without. They found individuals with beta-amyloid deposits had worse disease and a worse decline in their thinking ability. In addition, individuals with beta-amyloid were more likely to have Parkinson-like pathology and symptoms.

Read more at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/bumc-sfr051115.php

Grass-fed meat is harder to find, more expensive and harder to cook. Is it worth it? Let’s start with a little background: Cows eat grass. In fact, most of the beef produced in the U.S. up until the 1940s was from cattle that ate grass. But as the country grew, it eventually became necessary to improve the efficiency of beef production. Agricultural scientists discovered that mass production of beef was attainable by feeding high-energy grains to the cattle; this decreased the amount of time each animal had to be fed before being slaughtered — a shortcut if you will. (And yes, you read that correctly: We feed cows grains to make them fat, yet grains are supposedly “heart-healthy” for humans.)

Unfortunately, as with all things health related, there are no shortcuts. Research over three decades shows that the type of feed a cow consumes significantly alters the fatty-acid composition and overall antioxidant content of the beef it produces. This is so remarkable that as the concentration of grain increases in a cow’s diet, the ratio of “good fats” to “bad fats” in its meat decreases in a linear fashion. It is also worth noting that within 30 days of switching a cow from a grass-fed diet to a grain-fed diet, the resulting meat suffers dramatically. In fact, a review of existing research, published in Nutrition Journal in 2010, showed that meat from these cows — fed grains for a mere 30 days — will have a far more inflammatory fatty-acid composition and will lack the antioxidant content that is otherwise present in the meat of grass-fed animals.

Read more at: https://www.yahoo.com/health/whats-your-beef-118468530188.html

According to a study done by the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), American adults are not as educated about ways to maintain a healthy heart as they should be. “Most people don’t have the important information they need about omega-3s as it relates to heart, brain and eye health, as evidence by this survey,” said Adam Ismail, executive director of GOED. “This underscores the strong need for clear communication and education about the health benefits, nutritional value and sources of omega-3s.” The survey found that, following a heart health issue, 66% of respondents did not begin to take a heart-healthy supplement, such as omega-3s; 77% did not know that low levels of omega-3s could lead to bad health; 44% did not know that omega-3s could help lower blood pressure; and 92% were unaware of a good source of omega-3s.

“According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), an estimated 1.4 million coronary heart disease deaths in 2010 were attributable to low intakes of EPA and DHA,” said Ellen Schutt, communications director of GOED. “This is why GOED believes it is so important for the U.S. and Canadian governments to implement a DRI (Dietary Reference Intake) for omega-3s and we continue to work toward that goal. “This statistic makes educating customers about the benefits of omega-3s extremely important and our recent consumer survey just highlights that we have more work to do,” said Schutt. “We need to continue to work together as an industry to share this important information with consumers so we can change these statistics.”

Read more at: http://www.wholefoodsmagazine.com/news/breaking-news/research-finds-most-americans-are-unaware-benefits-omega-3s2094290

Some depressed patients are treatment-resistant — their symptoms do not lessen no matter what drug they take. Interestingly, given an anti-inflammatory drug, such patients who also happen to have high inflammation levels will find relief from their symptoms of depression. Now, a new study takes this unusual finding one step further — people with both depression and high inflammation benefit from taking omega-3 fatty acid EPA (eicosapentataenoic acid). Your body uses inflammation as a defense to protect against disease or infection. While you probably recognize inflammation when your sprained ankle begins to swell, you may not understand that your brain also can become inflamed. Though this natural response may be healing, too much inflammation can be damaging. A link between depression and inflammation was established earlier this year. After scanning the brains of 20 patients with depression and 20 healthy participants, a research team observed significant inflammation in the brains of people with depression. In fact, symptom severity directly related to inflammation levels — the patients with major depression showed a 30 percent inflammatory increase.

For the current study, scientists from Emory and Harvard Universities enlisted the help of 155 participants diagnosed with major depression, the most severe form of this mood disorder. The study began with the researchers measuring four inflammation biomarkers in each participant and then placing each into a low or high inflammation group. Then, the researchers randomly assigned participants to receive either 1,060 mg of EPA or 900 mg of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), or a placebo daily over an eight-week period. EPA and DHA are different types of omega-3 fatty acids, essential nutrients which originate in microalgae. At the end of the eight-week period, the researchers assessed each participant’s level of depression. The “high inflammation” subjects improved more with EPA than with either placebo or DHA. This finding suggests anti-inflammatory treatments might be effective in specific subgroups of patients with depression, the researchers say.

Read more at: http://www.medicaldaily.com/omega-3-fatty-acids-effectively-treat-depression-patients-high-inflammation-levels-332020

New research detailed in the journal Accident Analysis and Prevention reveal that those who have experienced at least one traumatic brain injury (TBI) are likely to be more aggressive on the road. Canadian researchers discovered that those who displayed serious driving aggression, including making threats to hurt fellow drivers, passengers or vehicles, were also at significantly higher odds of being involved in a motor vehicle collision.

“We know already that driver aggression and risk of driving collision are affected by psychiatric factors and substance use, and that this connection is strong, and we know that mental health and substance can be, both, antecedents and consequences of brain injury,” Dr. Gabriela Ilie, lead author of the study and a post-doctoral fellow at St. Michael’s Hospital, said in a statement. “Through this study, we wanted to examine if a link between traumatic brain injuries and road-related aggression and driving collisions also exists.” “These data suggest links between TBI and hazardous driving behaviors, but at this early stage we can’t be sure if these relationships are causal,” Dr. Robert Mann, senior scientist at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto and co-principal investigator of the study, concluded. “Nevertheless, it appears that a large proportion of the driving population has experienced these injuries, so understanding how trauma to the head affects driving could have important implications for improving traffic safety.”

Read more at: http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/25138/20150505/is-there-a-link-between-traumatic-brain-injury-and-road-rage.htm

At the forefront of a field known as “neurocriminology,” Adrian Raine of the University of Pennsylvania has long studied the interplay between biology and environment when it comes to antisocial and criminal behavior. With strong physiological evidence that disruption to the emotion-regulating parts of the brain can manifest in violent outbursts, impulsive decision-making and other behavioral traits associated with crime, much of Raine’s research involves looking at biological interventions that can potentially ward off these behavioral outcomes. A new study by Raine now suggests that omega-3, a fatty acid commonly found in fish oil, may have long-term neurodevelopmental effects that ultimately reduce antisocial and aggressive behavior problems in children.

Beginning 43 years ago, when Raine was a graduate student, he, his advisor and colleagues conducted a longitudinal study of children in the small island nation of Mauritius. The researchers tracked the development of children who had participated in an enrichment program as 3-year-olds and also the development of children who had not participated. This enrichment program had additional cognitive stimulation, physical exercise and nutritional enrichment. At 11 years, the participants showed a marked improvement in brain function as measured by EEG, as compared to the non participants. At 23, they showed a 34 percent reduction in criminal behavior. “We saw children who had poor nutritional status at age 3 were more antisocial and aggressive at 8, 11 and 17,” Raine said. “That made us look back at the intervention and see what stood out about the nutritional component. Part of the enrichment was that the children receiving an extra two and a half portions of fish a week.”

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-05-omega-nutritional-intervention-childhood-behavioral.html

Inflammation appears to be the underlying factor behind the symptoms of traumatic brain injuries, according to a new study published in the medical journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity by researchers at McMaster University in Canada. The findings provide an explanation for why many people with very mild head injuries, or even injuries to other parts of their bodies, still suffer from debilitating post-concussion-like syndromes. These symptoms include headaches, dizziness, cognitive impairment, and other neuropsychiatric symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, and insomnia. In fact, people who have a very subtle genetic change in a certain inflammatory protein tend to have poorer recovery after brain injury. The findings offer a new look at post-concussion syndrome and settle long-unanswered questions that have been plaguing experts in the field.

“It’s inflammation that they have in common,” said Michel Rathbone, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of medicine and lead author of the paper. He added that their new findings will encourage scientists to open up new lines of research into understanding the cause of post-concussion symptoms. So even in a situation where there is no obvious visible brain injury on conventional imaging scans, physicians may be able to still offer treatments that target inflammatory mediators. The findings also help explain why many social factors appear to play a role in the development of symptoms: “We know that the immune system can be modulated, or sensitized by the current and even the previous environment an individual was in. These social factors, such as preexisting stressors, depression, or anxiety, may actually be, in a way, biological factors,” said Rathbone. “This research opens many doors for so many different patients. We are excited to be starting a totally new approach to the field, and we look forward to making a difference for the patients of the future.”

Read more at: http://psychcentral.com/news/2015/05/09/inflammation-underlies-concussion-symptoms/84448.html

The majority of patients who experience a concussion recover fully within three months. However, a new study suggests there may be some gender differences when it comes to this form of mild traumatic brain injury. Following a concussion, women are more likely to have trouble with their short-term memories than men. By a ratio of two to one, “more women than men seek medical attention due to persistent symptoms,” Dr. Chi-Jen Chen, Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Brain and Consciousness Research Center at Taipei Medical University Shuang-Ho Hospital, said in a press release. “We started to wonder whether there might be differences in mild traumatic brain injury outcomes between men and women.”

Chen decided to investigate gender differences and their impact on healing from a concussion through a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study. He and his colleagues studied 30 patients with concussion and 30 control patients. Both groups contained an equal number of men and women. The researchers examined patients with fMRI within a month after injury and then followed-up with a second fMRI exam at six weeks after the first scan. (This form of brain scan allows scientists to analyze brain activation patterns.) All participants also underwent neuropsychological tests, including a digit span test and continuous performance test.

Female participants’ total digit span scores were lower in the concussion group compared to the control group. In the initial fMRI test, increased activation in working memory brain circuits was found in the male concussion group when compared with their same sex control group, while decreased activation in working memory brain circuits was found in the female concussion group. At the six-week follow-up test, the female concussion group still showed decreased activity, whereas the male concussion group had returned to normal brain activity patterns. The results suggest the men had healed while the women had ongoing problems with their memories. Though Chen cautions this is just a preliminary study, he suggests doctors be particularly careful when treating female patients with concussion.

Read more at: http://www.medicaldaily.com/following-concussion-more-women-men-experience-short-term-memory-problems-330904

The marijuana-derived compound cannabidiol has shown promise in treating rare forms of epilepsy, the type that cause children to have seizures multiple times a day. The new research indicates that cannabidiol, one of dozens of active cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant, can reduce the frequency of seizures in patients suffering from two rare forms of epilepsy called Dravet and Lennox-Gastaut syndromes. Dravet syndrome, also known as Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI), is a rare and catastrophic form of intractable epilepsy that begins in infancy. Lennox-Gastaut syndrome is a similar condition; most cases are due to diverse cerebral conditions.

The findings have been presented to a recent meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. With the research, some 135 participants, most of whom were children, completed a 12-week course of a liquid form of the drug. It was found that more than half experienced a significant reduction in the number of seizures they suffered, which averaged 95 per month prior to the trial. Interestingly, dozen or so patients were completely seizure-free after three months.

Read more at: http://www.digitaljournal.com/science/cannabidiol-halts-seizures-in-new-trail/article/431786

Chronic inflammation provokes a downward spiral in many diseases, including congestive heart failure, atherosclerosis and peripheral artery disease. A University of Alabama at Birmingham-led research team has now found that mice that are given the lipid “Resolvin D1” after experimental heart attacks have substantially reduced amounts of inflammation and heart failure.

“Thus, Resolvin D1 has the potential to delay heart failure but still requires long-term studies in order to prove its utilization in chronic heart failure management,” Ganesh Halade, Ph.D., and his study co-authors concluded in a Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology article recently published online. “This paper is the first to show resolvin’s effect on heart failure,” said Halade, an assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Disease,UAB Department of Medicine.

Inflammation is the body’s immune system response to injury, such as the muscle cells that die in a heart attack. The early acute inflammation response is beneficial, removing dead cells and beginning repairs in the injured area. Lingering, ungoverned chronic inflammation, however, is harmful. Resolvin D1 is naturally produced in the body as a metabolite of one omega-3 fatty acid that is especially present in fish oil. It and other resolvins have potent anti-inflammatory effects. Resolvins are natural signaling lipids in the body; but in the mouse experiments, Halade and colleagues boosted the amount of Resolvin D1 by an injection three hours after experimental myocardial infarction. They found that the heart-attack mice that were given Resolvin D1, or a more stable Resolvin D1 protected inside liposomes, had less left ventricle enlargement, an improved left ventricle function, less lung edema and a reduced collagen deposition, as compared with heart-attack mice that received only saline. All of these indicated reduced heart failure in the Resolvin D1-treated mice.

Read more at: http://www.uab.edu/news/innovation/item/6001-resolvin-d1-reduces-post-heart-attack-heart-failure

Patients with traumatic brain injuries are not benefiting from recent advances in cognitive neuroscience research – and they should be, scientists report in a special issue of Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences. Those who treat brain-injured patients rarely make use of new scientific discoveries about the workings of the brain. Instead, doctors, nurses and emergency personnel rely on a decades-old tool, the Glasgow coma scale, to categorize brain injuries as mild, moderate or severe. Brain scans are sometimes performed to help identify damaged regions, and then most patients receive one or more of the following four diagnoses: coma (no response to sensory stimulation), delirium (impaired ability to sustain attention), amnesia (impaired memory) and dysexecutive syndrome (impaired ability to engage in goal-directed thought).

These crude classifications reveal little about the underlying brain mechanisms that are damaged as a result of brain trauma, said Aron Barbey, a University of Illinois professor of neuroscience, of psychology, and of speech and hearing science. He and his colleagues propose that doctors take a deeper look at the brain networks that enable the regulation and control of attention, memory and thought – termed “cognitive control processes” – and use this knowledge to develop more targeted treatment strategies. Barbey is a professor in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and in the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I. “Traumatic brain injury is a global public health epidemic with an incidence that continues to rise,” Barbey said. “By 2020, the World Health Organization projects TBI will be the world’s leading cause of neurological disability across all age groups. “An emerging area of research seeks to develop better ways to assess traumatic brain injury. Recent findings demonstrate that multiple, interdependent brain networks drive and organize cognition. It is these networks that are highly susceptible to brain injury,” he said.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-04-brain-injured-patients-therapies-based-cognitive.html

Are there foods you can eat to reduce chronic inflammation? Health issues related to chronic inflammation have been getting quite a bit of attention in recent years. Ironically, inflammation is an important part of the immune system — in young people, bouts of inflammation actually help fight off disease and help repair damage from injury or exposure to harmful substances.

But according to the National Institutes of Health (more precisely, the National institute on Aging), as people grow older, chronic inflammation often sets in, and it tends to be associated with a whole host of diseases and conditions, including heart disease, arthritis, frailty, type 2 diabetes, physical disability and dementia. The challenge is that the science to help us understand this link is still evolving. Does chronic inflammation lead to these conditions? Or is it merely a marker in someone whose body is already trying to deal with them? Or, is it possible that chronic inflammation and these ailments have a more complex relationship?

That said, chronic inflammation is associated with these conditions, some of which can be debilitating. And it appears that an overall healthy diet, especially one that’s rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains and omega-3 fatty acids, can help reduce mild chronic inflammation. While, again, the evidence isn’t quite clear, it is promising. Knowing that there could be this added benefit to eating right might help nudge you toward reaching for that apple instead of an apple fritter.

Read more at: http://www.morrowcountysentinel.com/news/opinion/153141987/Chow-Line:-Diet-may-play-role-in-chronic-inflammation

Consuming omega-3 fatty acids during pregnancy benefits both the development of the baby, as well as the health of the mother. They have been found to be essential for both neurological and early visual development of the baby, and have been shown to prevent pre-term labor and delivery, lower the risk of preeclampsia for moms-to-be. A study, conducted by the Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition (APrON) looked to find if pregnant moms they were consuming enough omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega 3-LCPUFA) to meet current recommendations. Unfortunately, the findings revealed that most of these women were not.

For their study, APrON looked at 600 women who lived in Edmonton and Calgary. The team found that the majority of participants, despite a high level of education and income, were not meeting these recommendations for omega-3 LCPUFA during pregnancy and lactation. According to the study: “Only 27% of women during pregnancy and 25% at three months postpartum met the current consensus recommendation for DHA. Seafood, fish and seaweed products contributed to 79% of overall n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids intake from foods, with the majority from salmon. Results suggest that the majority of women in the cohort were not meeting the EU recommendation for DHA during pregnancy and lactation.”

Read more at: http://www.growingyourbaby.com/2015/03/28/study-pregnant-women-not-getting-enough-omega-3s/

Scientists have made an important new discovery about the brain’s immune system that could lead to potential new treatments for stroke and other related conditions. Inflammation is activated in the brain after a stroke, but rather than aiding recovery it actually causes and worsens damage. That damage can be devastating. In fact, stroke is responsible for 10% of deaths worldwide and is the leading cause of disability. Therefore, understanding how inflammation is regulated in the brain is vital for the development of drugs to limit the damage triggered by a stroke.

Dr. David Brough from the Faculty of Life Sciences, The University of Manchester, says, “We know very little about how the immune system is regulated in the brain. However, its important we understand this since it contributes to disease and injury. For example, in addition to stroke, Alzheimer’s disease has an inflammatory aspect and even depression may be driven by inflammation.”

Read more at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150316160530.htm

Testing soldiers’ sense of smell can help diagnose those with traumatic brain injury, a new study shows. The findings suggest that doctors in combat zones could use smell tests to help identify soldiers who require immediate brain scans, thereby improving frontline care of those with blast injuries, the researchers said. “Although it may seem far-fetched that the sense of smell can be used to identify a concealed brain injury, [impaired sense of smell] was commonly used by neurosurgeons in attempts to localize certain brain tumors prior to the use of advanced neuroimaging in the 1980s,” said study leader Dr. Michael Xydakis, an Air Force colonel and associate professor of surgery in the School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, in Bethesda, Md.

The study included 231 members of the U.S. military with combat injuries who were patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. They were evaluated for traumatic brain injuryand had their sense of smell tested. All of those with irregular results on the smell test had abnormalities on brain scans, according to the findings published online recently in the journal Neurology.

Read more at: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-03-brain-trauma-combat-zones.html

Inflammation can damage organs and cause disease, but its interference in the brain causes two common disorders. Most of us think little of inflammation until we’re injured, when swelling, redness and pain flood the affected area. Even then, we focus mostly on the pain, not the internal healing process. Your body’s defense mechanism kicks in, and you don’t have to think too much about inflammation – it’s just there when you need it. But inflammation might also occur when you don’t need it, and that can cause problems. In some individuals, inflammation is present at very low levels. Many experts now believe this type of low-grade, chronic inflammation is responsible for a litany of chronic conditions.

“When inflammation spreads to the pancreas, you get diabetes. When it spreads to the immune system, you get cancer,” says Barry Sears, an epidemiologist and best-selling author of “The Zone,” an anti-inflammatory nutrition book. And like cancer, he says this type of inflammation grows and spreads, damaging organs and causing all kinds of trouble. When inflammation spreads, it not only damages your organs, but also interferes with your brain’s signals to the rest of your body. With many conditions, the trouble starts in the hypothalamus, Sears says. “That’s the command center of the brain, and it receives all these hormonal inputs that tell you when you’re tired or when to eat, and what to do with those calories,” he says. When you have inflammation, proteins called pro-inflammatory cytokines distort those hormonal signals. As a result, inflammation might be causing conditions such as depression and obesity, which were correlated through research long before inflammation became a suspected culprit.

Read more at: http://health.usnews.com/health-news/health-wellness/articles/2015/03/16/obesity-and-depression-symptoms-of-a-common-cause

Statins can lower cholesterol and even tamp down inflammation to keep the risk of heart disease down. But these commonly prescribed drugs may increase the risk of diabetes, and by a considerable amount. Doctors may have to weigh a serious potential risk before prescribing statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs that are among most prescribed drugs in America. In a study published in Diabetologia, scientists from Finland found that men prescribed statins to lower their cholesterol had a 46% greater chance of developing diabetes after six years compared to those who weren’t taking the drug. What’s more, the statins seemed to make people more resistant to the effects of insulin—which breaks down sugar—and to secrete less insulin. The impact on insulin seemed to be greatest among those who started out with the lowest, and closest to normal, levels of blood glucose. And the higher the dose of the statin, and the longer the patients took them, the greater their risk of diabetes.

Read more at: http://time.com/3732605/statins-may-seriously-increase-diabetes-risk/

In boys with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, new research has found that an extra daily dose of Omega-3 fatty acids reduced symptoms of inattention. The study found that in a small clinical trial involving boys 8 to 14 years old, parents rated their son’s ability to pay attention more highly if the child’s diet was supplemented for 16 weeks with the long-chain fatty acid than if he got a placebo instead. Conducted in the Netherlands and published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the new research is in line with studies that have found a welter of neuropsychological benefits to Omega-3 supplementation.

In the current study, 40 subjects got an average of 650 mg per day of Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) and 650 mg of Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) — two different kinds of Omega-3s — in margarine. Half had been diagnosed with ADHD, and most continued with their stimulant medication while in the trial; he other half were normally-developing kids. The notable finding was that, whether or not they had ADHD, boys who got the Omega-3 supplement were rated by their parents as more attentive.

Read more at: http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-boys-omega-3-20150319-story.html