Newsletter #79: The End of Daylight Saving Time, and Flavonoids for Heart Health 🍎
Hello Friends!
Welcome to the newest humanOS newsletter! We hope everyone is adjusting to the end of Daylight Saving Time (if you need help with that, please check out our materials on circadian physiology, chrononutrition, and smart light exposure). Here is where we share our work, plus the various studies and media that caught our attention this week.
This Week’s Research Highlights
🤾♀️ Individuals who engage in regular exercise are substantially less likely to receive a depression diagnosis, even if they are at high genetic risk for the condition.
Researchers followed participants in the Partners Healthcare Biobank (longitudinal biobank cohort, n = 7968 individuals), who filled out a survey documenting their physical activity when they enrolled in the study. They then mined electronic health records over the following two years and identified individuals with incident episodes of depression based on diagnostic billing codes. They also calculated genetic risk scores from their genomic data to determine their inherited risk for depression. Unsurprisingly, people with greater genetic susceptibility to depression were more likely to have an episode of depression. However, people who were more physically active at baseline were less likely to develop the condition, even after accounting for genetic risk. And even those with the highest genetic risk scores for depression benefited from higher levels of physical activity. Regression models indicated that individuals experienced a 17% decrease in the odds of incident depression for every one SD increase in reported activity - roughly equivalent to four extra hours of activity per week.
Researchers followed 7968 individuals who filled out a survey documenting their physical activity when they enrolled in the study. They then mined electronic health records over the following two years and identified individuals with incident episodes of depression based on diagnostic billing codes. They also calculated genetic risk scores from their genomic data to determine their inherited risk for depression. Unsurprisingly, people with greater genetic susceptibility to depression were more likely to have an episode of depression. However, people who were more physically active at baseline were less likely to develop the condition, even after accounting for genetic risk. And even those with the highest genetic risk scores for depression benefited from higher levels of physical activity. Regression models indicated that individuals experienced a 17% decrease in the odds of incident depression for every one SD increase in reported activity - roughly equivalent to four extra hours of activity per week.
😪 Nearly half of American adults say that they have driven while drowsy.
According to a survey of more than 2000 people conducted by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 45% of Americans admitted that they had struggled to stay awake while behind the wheel of an automobile. Drowsy driving is implicated in an average of 328000 crashes, including 6400 fatal accidents, annually. The cognitive and motor performance impairments associated with driving without sleep have been shown to be comparable to that induced by intoxication.
☕ Drinking coffee is associated with reduced risk of liver cancer.
Researchers examined the coffee-drinking habits and incident digestive cancers in 471779 participants in the UK Biobank. After adjusting for known confounders (smoking, alcohol, cholesterol, etc), the researchers found that coffee drinkers were 50% less likely to develop hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, compared.
🦴 Inadequate sleep is linked to greater risk of low bone mineral density.
Researchers analyzed data on sleep habits and bone density in 11084 postmenopausal women. After controlling for weight, smoking, age, and other factors, they found that women who slept less than five hours a night were 22% more likely than those who slept at least seven hours to have low bone mass, and 63% more likely to have osteoporosis of the hip, with a similar pattern for osteoporosis of the spine.
New humanOS Content
🔬 On this episode of humanOS Radio, Dan talks with Nicola Bondonno. Nicky has a PhD in nutrition and cardiovascular disease from the University of Western Australia. Her research has been examining the effects of bioactive compounds occurring naturally in plant-based foods and beverages, and how they are connected to the cardiovascular health benefits associated with a plant-rich diet.
🍏 Her recent work has focused on dietaryflavonoids. Flavonoids are a large class of polyphenolic compounds that carry out a variety of important functions in plants. These compounds seem to contribute to many of the health benefits that are associated with consuming fruits and vegetables. Just as one example, flavonoids appear to boost bioavailability of nitric oxide, potentially leading to improvements in endothelial function.
🎧 In an earlier study, Nicky and colleagues found that people who consumed apples with skins intact (skins are rich in flavonoids) showed a significant boost in flow-mediated dilation, compared to subjects eating apples with the skins removed. But do these acute improvements in vascular function from flavonoids translate to long term reductions in cardiovascular risk and mortality? To learn what they found, and to learn more about dietary flavonoids and their role in health and disease, check out the podcast!
Podcasts We Loved This Week
- Steven Austad: Aging and Preserving Human Health. Via STEM-Talk.
- Mike T. Nelson: CBD and Cannabinoids: Beneficial Plant Compounds or All Hype? Via Nourish Balance Thrive.
- Anurag Singh: Pomegranates, Muscle Mass, and Healthy Aging. Via the LLAMA (Live Long and Master Aging) Podcast.
Products We Are Enjoying
Stevia Glycerite.
Stevia tends to have a weird aftertaste, which is exacerbated in alcohol-based liquid stevia extracts. That’s why I like stevia glycerite. It is a bit more expensive, but the taste is so much cleaner and sweeter that it’s absolutely worth it. The texture is also thick and syrupy, so it’s more likely to stick if you’re pouring it on fruit or something else. This product from Now Foods is relatively affordable (8 ounces goes a long way). I also highly recommend the 365 French Vanilla liquid stevia from Whole Foods.