Quitting Junk Food and Quitting Drugs Has Similar Withdrawal Symptoms

Posted on September 24, 2018 by | 1 comment

Cheddar Stuffed Burger (Photo: jeffreyw on Flickr)

If you try to cut junk food out of your diet, don’t think it will be easy. You can expect to suffer withdrawal symptoms like those experienced by addicts who attempt to quit drugs.

A study published in December 2018 lead by Erica Schulte, psychology doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, found that participants who had quit eating junk food reported having similar symptoms at a similar timescale as drug withdrawal.

The addictive qualities of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs affect the brain, and cutting back causes negative side effects that make it difficult to quit these substances. Understanding whether highly processed food cause withdrawal was important in determining if eating highly processed food can cause similar addictive processes.

Schulte and her team created a tool where 231 adults reported the physical and psychological symptoms that they experienced after cutting down the amount of highly processed food that they ate.

The participants reported feelings of sadness, irritability, tiredness, and cravings peaking two to five days after they began cutting back on junk food. This parallels the course of drug withdrawal symptoms.

This study backs up a study published in 2008 by Dr. N.M. Avena that found rats can develop an addiction to sugar, which is often found in junk food. The rats in Dr. Avena’s study also developed symptoms of withdrawal.

A Selection of Chocolate Spreads in a Store (Photo: Eugene Hui)

Schulte’s study did not go into how the participants quit junk food, such as gradually phasing it out, or going “cold turkey” (cutting everything all at once.) She said that this could be investigated in a future study.

From this study, we can clearly see why there is an obesity epidemic – highly processed food tastes great, and once we start eating it, it’s hard to stop. Governments can make the nutritional value of junk food clearly visible to the consumer, but I have ignored this valuable information that should let make healthy choices. After all, I was just satisfying my craving for a delicious poutine – or more likely, it was the withdrawal.

Additional source: University of Michigan

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Scientists Have Found Plastic-Eating Worm! Can They Save Our Environment?

Posted on September 24, 2018 by | 2 comments

Plastic pollution is one of the most serious environmental issues on earth. Annually, human release trillion of plastic wastes into the ocean without breaking down the plastic. I have seen a lot of documentary films talk about how marine animals and seabirds are being injured and killed by plastic pollution. Fortunately, scientist Dr. Federica Bertocchini and her colleagues from Cantabria in Spain have discovered an insect that can digest plastic bags.

Dr. Federica Bertocchini, who works at the Institute of Biomedicine and Biotechnology of Cantabria in Spain, is a beekeeper in her free time. She accidentally discovered the plastic-eating worms while she was cleaning beehives at her home. She found that the beehives were infested by caterpillar larvae of Galleria mellonella, commonly known as the wax worm.

Waxworm – photo from Wikimedia Commons

“The wax worms are a plague for beekeepers; I put the worms in a plastic bag and after a while, I realized that the bag was riddled with holes and the worms were all around in my flat,” said Bertocchini while she was in an interview with Roechling Stiftung.

The discovery made Bertocchini realize a possibility of plastic biodegradation by using a natural agent. Then Bertocchini and her research team decided to investigate whether if the wax worms actually degraded the plastic bag, or they just physically chewed it for escape. They gathered some wax worms in a plastic bag. After 12 hours, they noticed that the worms obviously reduced the mass of plastic bag. Then a further testing showed that the wax worm chemically converted the plastic into other materials, which proved that a wax worm is a possible approach for biodegradation.

Watch how waxworm breaks down the plastic bag from the following YouTube video:

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Why is wax worm able to degrade the plastic bags? Bertocchini and her team conclude that may be due to the place where the wax worm lives: the beehives. Wax worm consumes beeswax and honey as food, and beeswax has a similar chemical structure as plastic. Thus, the wax worm can chemically digest the plastic. A more specific explanation of their research can be found in their paper in Current Biology.

The question now is whether if scientists can use wax worms to solve plastic pollution. In my opinion, it is irresponsible for scientists to directly use them in our environment. Although wax worms can break down plastic bags in a more natural way, wax worms are enemy to bees. No one can ensure that wax worms will only digest the plastic wastes, since they may turn to destroy the habitat of bees which will bring more environmental issues to us.

“The idea of actually using the caterpillars never crossed our mind,” says Bertocchini. “They are a plague for the environment, you cannot throw millions of worms in the environment, the equilibrium in nature must be respected.”

-Tina Sun

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A Hazy Mind: Air Pollution Causes a Decrease in Intelligence

Posted on September 23, 2018 by | Leave a comment

Among the many health hazards that air pollution causes, recent studies in China and Mexico shows a new link between poor air quality and an overall decrease in intelligence.

Air pollution has been well documented to cause harm to our bodies, but its effect on our minds has not been thoroughly researched. These new studies closely tracked the mental states of individuals over the span of years, revealing ground-breaking results in the psychological effects of air pollution.

Masks are used for protection from fine particulates- Courtesy of Arran Smith

A study in China tracked the pollution levels throughout two years and monitored individuals throughout this period. This allowed researchers to obtain a reference point for each individual and looked at their overall mental change.

The study concluded that long exposure to polluted air degraded cognitive functions. People over the age of 64 suffered the largest drop in intelligence, with losing up to one year of education.

Another study, by the Beijing Normal University, tracked sulphur dioxides and nitrogen dioxides levels from 2010-2014 along with the performance of 20,000 students in an arithmetic and language test. The study determined that prolonged exposure to air pollution caused a drop in test scores; with language functions decreasing greater than mathematics.

Beijing is known for poor air quality -Photo by Kentaro IEMOTO on Flickr

A study by the Mexican National Pediatrics Institute, shadowed children and dogs from areas in Mexico with varying levels of air pollution. All the participants of the study were pre-screened for any neurological and cognitive disorders that might affect the results. The participants then underwent brain MRI scans which showed abnormal inflammations in the brains of participants living in polluted areas.

This correlation has not been deeply studied, due to how relatively new these findings are. “The present work presents a ground-breaking relationship between environmental pollution, structural brain alterations and cognitive deficits/delays in healthy children” says in the paper published by the Mexican National Pediatrics Institute

These new findings are crucial to understand the adverse effects of global warming on our brains. Rather than just a correlation, scientists firmly believe it is directly harming our brains. “It is because high air pollution can potentially be associated with oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and neurodegeneration of humans” says Derrick Ho from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

This gives us a brief glimpse into our polluted future, as greenhouse gases are rising, exposure to high levels of pollution are affecting more and more individuals. Around 90% of the world already lives in areas where air pollution surpasses the World Health Organization guidelines. The impact of air pollution will greatly affect our quality of life and place a burden on economy due the large effect on the population’s health.

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Can We Manufacture “Magic” Rice to Treat HIV at Low Cost?

Posted on September 23, 2018 by | Leave a comment

It appears that we can finally provide cheaper methods of HIV treatment to benefit the patients on developing countries, where it is most needed.

In Rice Field: Photo by zcf428526 on Pixabay

In a study published on July 2018, Dr. Vamvaka and her team of scientists from various countries concluded that using rice grains to produce HIV-neutralizing agents is possible, at a cost much lower than current manufacturing methods allow.

The existing methods rely on mammalian or microbial cell systems to produce proteins against HIV, however “these are expensive because the products must be extensively purified”, as the study points out. Additionally, the manufacturers must make several different proteins, to ensure treatment even if the virus mutates.

Plants offer a novel alternative. Cereal grains allow multiple proteins to be produced on the same grain and are safe to use as crude extract without thorough purification methods.

To create the anti-HIV rice grains, the researchers used genetic information for three different commonly prescribed anti-HIV agents, GRFT, 2G12 and CV-N, to implant into the rice tissue. The resulting rice were then tested by ELISA assay, using HIV-1 pseudoviruses to analyze inhibitor binding activity. While they were able to produce feasible amount of successfully transformed grains, the extract of rice grown with transformed seeds showed sufficient anti-HIV activity.

When tested for any interactions in between, the three reagents extracted from rice didn’t show any adversity. Instead, they complemented each other such that small concentrations of GRFT neutralized more HIV-binding sites.

Neutralization of GRFT in different combinations of anti-HIV proteins in rice. Figure by Vamvaka et. al. in PNAS

The research team believes that anti-HIV rice is the main method that should be employed to combat HIV in the developing world: “This groundbreaking strategy is realistically the only way that microbicidal cocktails can be manufactured at a cost low enough for the developing world, where HIV prophylaxis is most in demand.”

With such a promising development, it appears that we will soon be able to grow HIV-fighting rice to help HIV patients all over the world.

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Overcoming “The Wall”

Posted on September 23, 2018 by | Leave a comment

If you’ve ever watched a marathon, you’ve probably seen some runners collapse just short of the finish line. Or you’re out on a run and it suddenly seems like you’ve completely run out of energy, despite your brain raring you to go. It’s almost as if the connection between your brain and your body has been severed. This is known as “Hitting The Wall”, or “Bonking” if you’re a cyclist.

Runners at the Stockholm Marathon 2006 – Photo from flickr 

It was thought for a while that using up the body’s glucose reserves was the cause of this. Instead, a new study in Cell Metabolism surprisingly shows that “hitting the wall” actually happens when your brain cannot get access to sufficient glucose. While the muscles in our body can use fat or glucose as fuel, the brain can only use the latter.

The study shows that progressive training reprograms our muscles to burn less glucose and more fat while in use, thereby preserving it as an energy source for your brain. Research in the study focused on a transcription factor known as PPARδ (pronounced PPAR-delta). PPARδ triggers muscle composition changes in our body and “teaches” our muscles to consume fat as fuel instead of glucose. Progressive training gradually activates PPARδ.

In the first set of experiments in the study, researches at Lausanne Switzerland’s Ecole Polytechnique Federale genetically knocked out PPARδ in the muscles of mice. The mice were then put on treadmills and the effects of the lack of PPARδ were studied. Dr Michael Downes said “”When we did this and then ran those animals on a treadmill, we found that the genes that are normally induced by exercise failed to be induced.”

With this information, they then fed another group of mice a small molecule drug that activated PPARδ. These mice were able to run for a longer time (160 mins vs 270 mins) compared to the mice that had PPARδ deactivated – despite no progressive training to improv their endurance. By activating PPARδ within the mice, they were able to mimic progressive training.

While these findings can be exploited by athletes wanting a competitive edge, the best promise lies in being able to improve the endurance in people who are unable to naturally activate PPARδ through progressive training. People who have been sidelined after a serious accident or suffering from diseases that such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis.

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What effect do artificial sweeteners have on our gut health?

Posted on September 23, 2018 by | 1 comment

We know that zero calorie drinks have been very popular lately due to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendation to keep added sugars below 36 grams for adult males and 25 grams for adult females. Sweetened beverages such as coke highly contribute to this amount by boasting 39 grams in a single 12 fl oz. can of coke, Dr. Nitin Kumar of the Bariatric Endoscopy Institute says, “For someone trying to control blood sugar and/or lose weight, sweeteners can have a role as a sugar replacement”. With obesity on the rise in the United States lower calorie alternatives are gaining in popularity and artificial sweeteners have been a popular choice to reduce intake of added sugars and calories without sacrificing the sweet taste that we all crave. Is there enough research to show that artificial sweeteners don’t have any long-term effects?

Author: My100cans
License: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:OldNewDietCoke.JPG

A systematic review of epidemiological data has suggested that there is a link between artificially sweetened beverage consumption and weight gain in children. This is tied together with an additional review that shows artificial sweeteners are associated with greater consumption of calories despite these compounds not contributing any calories to the diet. (2)

If the main drivers of weight gain are not caused by excessive calories from the sweetened beverage then what could be leading the greater consumption of calories? An additional study looked towards the gut for a solution. They found a link between artificial sweeteners and alteration in the gut microbiome. A healthy gut microbiome is paramount to nutrient absorption. They found that the consumption of non-caloric artificial sweeteners drives the development of a dysfunction in glucose metabolism called glucose intolerance. Dysfunctional glucose metabolism drives the development of many metabolic diseases such as diabetes and metabolic syndrome and can cause weight gain.

Equal saccharin artificial sweetener ~ Merisant Company manufacturer of sugar substitutes Author: Jphill19 License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Equal_Saccharin_Sweetner.jpg

To study the effects of artificial sweeteners, a study examined the artificial sweetener saccharin which is 300-400 times sweeter than table sugar. In this study, 10-week-old mice were given saccharin (0.1 mg/ml) corresponding to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) in humans (5 mg/kg body weight) was added to their water while using pure glucose as a control. The results showed impaired glucose tolerance starting at 5 weeks despite having the same food and liquid consumption, oxygen consumption, and energy expenditure. They also transferred the gut biome of saccharin drinking mice into water drinking mice and upon receiving the changed microbiota, these mice displayed reduced glucose tolerance.

These finding prove that artificial sweeteners negatively influence the microbiome of the mice that consume them, and this can very well serve to be similar in humans. Glucose tolerance and by association insulin control is a very important marker of a healthy metabolism so regularly consuming artificial sweeteners can be detrimental to maintaining your health long term.

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Should Some Breads be Age Restricted?

Posted on September 23, 2018 by | Leave a comment

What if I were to tell you that every time you had consumed bread from a bakery, you were also consuming alcohol as well?

Although it is not recent news, a common way for bakers to create loaves of bread is to add yeast into their dough to make it rise. This idea comes from a famous french chemist named Louis Pasteur, who discovered the process of fermentation in 1857. In this process however, ethanol (the type of alcohol found in beer and other alcoholic beverages) is produced as a product. Is bread really safe to eat without the feeling of intoxication?

The short answer: Yes.

The process of fermentation involves converting one molecule of glucose into two molecules of both ethanol and carbon dioxide in the absence of oxygen.

The Process of Ethanol Fermentation

According to chemical engineer/data scientist Josh Velson,

“However, during the baking process, most of the alcohol in the dough evaporates into the atmosphere. This is basically the same thing that happens to much of the water in the dough as well.”

So no worries, bread is perfectly fine to eat. If bread is one of your favourite things to eat like me, this feeling of relief is the best thing since sliced bread.

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Infinite Electricity: Gut Microbes Light the Way

Posted on September 17, 2018 by | 1 comment

As Einstein said, “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it.” That’s exactly what scientists uncovered when studying microbes in the human gut.

At a time when governments are trying to discover renewable, clean sources of energy, the solution may be closer than most people think! Following a gut feeling, researchers discovered a microbial species that can generate electricity useful as a source for microbial fuel cells.

On Wednesday, the journal Nature, published findings from a University of California research team that discovered electron-generating bacteria found in the human gut capable of creating electricity. Light et al. showed that the gram-positive bacterium, Listeria monocytogenes, is able to make energy through extracellular electron transfer (EET) in the gut.

Listeria monocytogenes
By By Elizabeth White

EET is a process similar to the electron transfer pathway found in respiration. However, in EET, electrons are transferred to a final acceptor on the exterior of the cell, not the interior. The mechanism of EET is well known for gram-negative microbes, such as Shewanella oneidensis. Residing in an environment rich in minerals, S. oneidensis uses EET to transport electrons to an acceptor outside of the cell, creating accessible energy. By mutating L. monocytogenes, Light et. al identified key proteins in the EET transport pathway, but not the terminal electron acceptor.

Why was this exciting news? L. monocytogenes employs a simpler EET pathway using fewer electron transfer steps than gram-negative bacteria, opening up a new avenue to create potentially more effective microbial fuel cells. However, it’s important to note that the EET pathway isn’t vital for the survival of L. monocytogenes; it is simply more efficient in producing energy when the bacteria is in a nutrient-rich environment. Thus, I think that despite the existence of a simpler EET pathway for gram-positive bacteria, scientists would be wise to not give up on researching the gram-negative EET pathway since the conditions in which gram-positive bacteria use EET may be constrained to certain environments.  In addition, researchers have not yet determined which EET pathway, gram-negative or gram-positive, results in the creation of more energy, which is another reason for study into both EET pathways to continue.

Genomic studies by Light et. al, have identified a multitude of gram-positive bacteria with the potential of having EET proteins, indicating that the EET pathway of electrical production is evolutionarily and environmentally diverse, and may be present in currently undiscovered microbes. There may be a wide range of microbes waiting to be investigated to discover answers to my questions and make efficient microbial fuel cells.

Schematic of a microbial fuel cell. Microbes facilitate the oxidation of fuel in order to drive a current. By Bretschger O, Osterstock JB, Pinchak WE, Ishii S, Nelson KE

Discovering the EET mechanism of gram-positive bacterium, L. monocytogenes, has opened up the possibility of creating another form of microbial fuel cells. Unfortunately, I think the replacement of gram-positive bacteria in microbial fuel cells over gram-negative bacteria will continue to be unfeasible until the terminal electron acceptor in the EET pathway is identified along with the factors that affect the expression of the EET pathway in gram-positive bacteria.

-Teresa Howard

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Its In the Water

Posted on September 17, 2018 by | Leave a comment

When purchasing pharmaceuticals, there almost always is a concerningly long list of potential side effects tied to the drug. Unfortunately, according to recent studies, a very important side-effect has been neglected: the potential for drug accumulation in bodies of water, including our drinking water. While there seems to be no harm to humans yet, fish are feeling the brunt of the effects.

Brook Trout – Pixnio

A recent study has shown mutations in the reproductive system of fish due to estrogen-containing wastewater in Boulder, Co. And so, it may seem that us Canadians are off the hook. Less people, less pollution, right? Well, unfortunately that is not the case. A 2012 study carried out by the Assembly of First Nations, as well as a couple Canadian universities, looked at the water quality in Ontario and found a witch’s brew of pharmaceuticals within Canadian drinking and surface water. Amongst the cocktail of drugs were estrogen-containing contraceptives. And while the concentrations are still low enough to ease the concern of mutant fish, there is still concern as to how we are going to mitigate this issue.

Pills Tablets – Pixabay

How is it that so many drugs are in our water? Well, the answer is simple. With over 40% of Canadians ages 6-79 having prescription medications, and even more so using over the counter medications, the number of pharmaceuticals going to sewer or waste is huge. Even with proper dosing, there is still a large percentage of a drug which is filtered out of the body and into the urine. Waste water treatment is not equipped for full breakdown of the drugs, and so they return to our waters through treated sewage.  Furthermore, disposal of old or unwanted drugs usually involves going to landfill or down the drain, both causing a influx of pharmaceuticals in our waters.

While Canada is trying to mitigate the issue of drugs going to water by having the take back system, there are still concerns with the ability of present drugs being able to break down in the environment.

 

-Tia Malloff

 

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Using Gut Enzymes to Transform Blood Type

In Canada, the average wait time to receive an organ transplant, like a kidney is almost five years. I have an uncle in Ontario who was diagnosed with kidney disease in 2008 and waited almost 8 years for a kidney transplant.  The delay in this procedure was mainly because he is O type blood, meaning that he could only receive a kidney from donors who also had O type blood. With a lack of organ donors and difficulties in blood type matching the wait for organ transplants could continue to increase.

This year, however, Steven Withers and his research group in the UBC Chemistry department have discovered gut enzymes that can transform any blood type into the universal donor, O type. Scientists have been researching methods to increase the number of blood matches since the 1980’s, especially with the growing population and increased frequency of natural disasters.  Almost half of Canada’s population has O type blood which can be received by all other blood types.  However, O type themselves can only receive blood transfusions from other O types which is exactly where the problem lies.

O Type Blood-Wikimedia Commons

Blood type is determined genetically by antigens, molecules made of protein and  sugars. In the case of blood typing, the antigens are specialized sugar structures attached to the surface of red blood cells. Different blood types have different antigens; for example, those with A type blood have the A type antigens, those with AB blood have both A and B antigens and O type has no antigens. For one to receive a blood transfusion, the blood type of the donor must match that of the acceptor or be O type.

ABO Blood Type-Wikimedia Commons

If the blood type does not match, the body’s immune system will fail to recognize the foreign antigens and attack the newly transfused blood cells which can be a life-threatening response. In emergencies, there is often not enough time to perform a blood test, therefore giving a patient O type blood is the safest and fastest method increasing the overall demand of O type. Converting any type of blood into O type is the key to saving more lives by making transfusions more accessible.

Withers strategy in transforming blood types to O type, was to find enzymes that consumed or cleaved sugars that were similar to the antigens present on red blood cells. To accomplish this he used metagenomics, a type of genetic analysis that samples DNA from millions of microorganisms finding similar environments to the desired enzyme. Withers eventually found enzymes housed in the mucosal lining of the gut that cleaved sugars similar to blood antigens. He cloned these enzymes assessing their efficiency and functionality on actual red blood cells, concluding that they were able to remove all antigens from the surface of the blood cells.

Previously, Withers and his research group isolated different enzymes that seemed to cleave the same sugars, but they were inefficient and inconsistent. Withers is now moving forward with the enzymes applying for patents and hopefully proceeding to clinical trials in the near future, they “hope that one day [they] can eventually render any type of donated blood, tissues or organs, safe for use by anyone regardless of their native blood type.”

While I  believe that this type of research is important, I also think a larger problem lies in the lack of people actually donating blood. In the United States alone, almost 38% of the population is eligible to give blood, but only about 10%  donate on a regular basis. In addition to Withers enzyme, more of the population needs to be aware of the importance of donating blood which I believe would increase the amount of overall donations a year.

-Priya Baichoo

 

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Posted on September 17, 2018 by in News

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