The scientists at OSU (Oregon State University) have made significant development in understanding the functions that gut bacteria have in human health. By learning the mechanisms through which gut microbes impact the health of their hosts paves the way to the development of more personalized and better diagnostic therapies and methods. Most of the studies so far have aimed at how the intake of the microbiome—organisms present and in what amounts—links with health in general or different diseases. The OSU research was conducted by Courtney Armour—Ph.D. student—and goes a step further by studying which organisms are present in the microbiome and what functions they may be performing. The research was published in mSystems. Armour studied findings and data from eight various studies including seven dissimilar diseases in a metagenomic meta-analysis.

Reportedly, metagenomics is the study of genetic material recuperated directly from environmental samples—such as human fecal samples—against organisms cultured in a laboratory. A meta-analysis is a numerical technique for merging data from several studies. The meta-analysis was performed along with the collaborators involved metagenomic information from almost 2,000 samples collected for research involving Crohn’s disease, colorectal cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, liver cirrhosis, obesity, type II diabetes, and ulcerative colitis.

On a similar note, recently, a study established global microbial signatures for colorectal cancer. For long, cancers have been known to occur due to environmental encounters like unhealthy diet or smoking. In recent time, the microbes residing on and in our body have entered the phase as crucial players, while stomach cancer can be occurred by a solo bacterial species, Helicobacter pylori, the function that gut microbes have in the advancement of colorectal cancer—which is the third common cancer across the globe—is unclear.

Researchers from the University at Albany’s School of Public Health highlighted that kids facing adversity are at a notably greater risk for critical depression. This research is available for access in the journal Depression and Anxiety. In this research, assistant professors Allison Appleton, Melissa Tracy, and Tomoko Udo explained that over 50% of adults report that they witnessed one or more unpleasant childhood event. It includes parental mental health issues or monetary hardship. This adversity has long been linked to depression in an individual’s later life. However, until now, the timing of the adversity regarding depression was not clear.

In this research, the scientists identified paths of adversity from birth through late childhood. They studied the long-period effects on depression results with the help of data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

On a similar note, recent research headed by the University of Queensland (UQ) came into the news as it discovered that women experiencing signs of depression are at higher risk to develop multiple critical diseases. Xiaolin Xu from UQ School of Public Health proclaimed that women who experienced signs of depression, even with no clinical diagnosis, were at higher risk to develop multiple severe diseases.

The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health studied middle-aged healthy women with no earlier diagnosis of depression or critical illness over 20 Years. This study discovered that about 43.2% of women witnessed elevated signs of depression and just under half the group reported they were taking treatment or diagnosed for depression. The research highlighted that women under the depressed group were about 1.8 times more probable to have numerous chronic health conditions before they initially witnessed depression signs. Mr. Xu said, “Experiencing depressive symptoms appeared to amplify the risk of chronic illness.”

Hundreds of thousands of patients worldwide use Glucosamine supplements to ease the joint pain triggered because of osteoarthritis. However, there are debates on its actual advantages in the joint. Now, a huge study with data from the U.K. Biobank disclosed that glucosamine supplements’ regular use could minimize the threat of getting cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cardiovascular incidents.

The study titled “Association of habitual glucosamine use with risk of cardiovascular disease: a prospective study in UK Biobank” can be accessed in the journal BMJ. The scientists at Harvard University, Tulane University, and Harbin Medical University highlighted that the regular or habitual use of these supplements might stop CVD incidents including stroke and coronary heart disease. Professor Lu Qi, Tulane University, New Orleans, and his associates collected data from the UK Biobank. Reportedly, this data includes data from more than half a million British people.

On a similar note, researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, highlighted the results of their latest research. Reportedly, this research led to review the impact of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) eating plan on heart failure. According to this research, following a plant-rich diet that holds an ability to minimize the high blood pressure might also be impactful in lowering the threat of heart failure in population with less than 75 Years age.

The results of this research can be accessed in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Numerals from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlight that in the U.S. there are approximately 5.7 Million people with heart failure. This health condition occurs when the heart continues to beat but it is not able to pump blood in a proper way it should. As a result, the organs and tissues in the human body do not get the supply of oxygen and nutrients they require to work properly and be healthy.

According to new research, the regular coffee drinkers can smell out even tiny amounts of coffee and are quicker at recognizing the aroma, in comparison to non-coffee drinkers. The habitual coffee drinkers are more sensitive to the odor of coffee and are quicker to recognize it, but the more they crave for coffee, their capability became better to smell it. This is the first time proof has been found to show that coffee addicts are more responsive to the smell of coffee. The outcome can open the door to potential novel ways of utilizing aversion therapy to cure people addicted to substances having a distinct smell, like cannabis and tobacco.

The research was conducted by Dr. Lorenzo Stafford—from the UOP (University of Portsmouth)—said, “We have discovered the higher the caffeine utilize, the quicker a person recognized the odor of coffee. We also found that higher caffeine users were capable of detecting the odor of a greatly diluted coffee chemical at lower concentrations and this facility increased with their intensity of craving. So the more they craved for caffeine, the better the sense of smell for coffee became.” He further added, “We have known that drug prompts (for instance, the smell of alcohol) can activate craving in users, but here we showed with a placidly addictive drug, that craving may be associated to an amplified ability to spot that substance.” The research was published in Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology.

On a similar note, recently, a Harvard University study showed that drinking up to six cups of coffee a day is perhaps safe. But those cups must contain about 100 Milligrams of caffeine and little added sweetener and milk. It also appeared that coffee is “harmless” to drink and it also has genuine health benefits, such as protecting against Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and some liver diseases. Coffee drinkers might also have slightly less danger of dying from cardiac or heart disease in comparison to those who miss out the coffee.

Currently, plant-based meat has become the hottest product of supply and demand for investors and consumers. Just 2 Weeks after their public market debut, the shares of Beyond Meat (BYND) have shown a dramatic rise of above 240%. The Impossible Foods has declared that there was new funding of $300 million made at the start of the week. The new celebrity investors making the funding include Serena Williams, JAY-Z, Katy Perry, Will.i.am, Trevor Noah, Kal Penn, and Alexis Ohanian. Since 2011, the company has had its capitals raised to more than $750 Million. According to CFO David Lee of Impossible Foods, the company has new plans and future business strategies made for raising its funds.

The plant-based meat is currently becoming the consumers’ first choice owing to its large scale availability and low health risk. The plant-based meat is catching up the future growth. The Impossible Foods have noticed a massive increase coming from its 7,000 locations. There are even some major industries such as RBI (QSR), which is the parent company of Burger King that openly spilled out its details on their own revenue as they wish to see the Impossible Burgers widely accepted across all 7,200 of their sites in the U.S.

After March, many of the locations in Asia, Macau, Hong Kong, and Singapore have shown a three times escalation in the business. The Impossible Burger 2.0 is still a new concept and hence the rest of the world still has to catch up. The demand for the product is still unpredictable. The surge in the demand can be predicted to increase within weeks, months, or even years. The manufacturing process of the Impossible Foods’ has stringent constraints followed for a better and qualitative product. The challenge in syncing the demand and supply is something the company has to overcome in order to survive in the global meat market. Burger King has declared a worldwide launch of the Impossible Whopper at 7,300 locations by the latter half of 2019. By 2035, Impossible Foods’ mission plans to totally substitute animals from the food chain followed by reducing pork, chicken and fish usage. The product demand has already increased and the production line is working 3 shifts already.

The active ingredients of usually utilized sunscreens flow into the bloodstream at much greater levels than existing US standards from health regulators and necessitate further safety research, as per a small study performed by researchers of the US FDA. The OTC products initially marketed to avoid sunburn with modest regulation are broadly utilized to obstruct the sun’s radiation that can lead to skin cancer, the most ordinary malignancy in the US.

The study of 23 participants examined 4 sunscreens, comprising lotion, cream, and sprays, applied to 75% of the body 4 times daily over 4 Days, along with blood tests to verify the utmost levels of specific chemicals taken up into the bloodstream performed over 7 Days. The research discovered the chemicals’ utmost plasma levels it examined for— octocrylene, oxybenzone, avobenzone, and in one sunscreen ecamsule—to be over the level of 0.5 ng/mL upon which FDA standards demand further safety testing.

The products used in the study were not named by the researchers. The impact of plasma concentrations surpassing the FDA’s cap is not recognized and requires to be further examined, mentioned the research team. The findings in no means propose that people should discontinue utilizing sunscreen to defend against the harmful UV rays of the Sun, said the scientists.

Likewise, Haereticus Environmental Laboratory located in Virginia has been prominent in the study into toxicity of chemical sunscreen. Scientists from the lab have just issued a study in the Reproductive Toxicology signifying a connection between exposure to oxybenzone and the development of birth defects during pregnancy’s first trimester—particularly, a defect known as Hirschsprung’s Disease. The study authors stoutly advise pregnant women to shun utilizing sunscreen products in their first trimester with oxybenzone, also women endeavoring to conceive, as the chemical is fat-soluble, which can remain in the body for weeks.

Most of the time, it is recommended to slash the sodium from the diet. Limiting sodium consumption has been a key to lowering blood pressure. The scientists analyzed hundreds of metabolites substances created during absorption from blood samples strained in research amongst 64 black British residents having hypertension or high blood pressure. All participants were inculcated to follow a lowered-sodium diet. The researchers found reducing sodium intake outcome in higher levels of two particular metabolites, both linked with arterial stiffness and lower blood pressure levels. The research taps into the discipline of metabolomics, which studies how small molecules react to alterations in their surroundings. In this case, the levels of sodium changed the setting.

Every participant in the study was placed on a low-sodium diet and half were provided a slow-release sodium pill for 6 Weeks, while the others received placebos. The scientists then swapped the tablets for an extra 6 Weeks. Dr. Haidong Zhu—Lead Author of the study—said, “We know lowered sodium intake lowers the cardiovascular and blood pressure risk. Nevertheless, the fundamental biological mechanisms are not well-formed.” The study was published in the AHA’s (American Heart Association) journal Hypertension. The researchers found that lowering sodium intake outcome in the increase of two types of metabolites—methionine sulfone and beta-hydroxyisovalerate—plus a modest drop in blood pressure.

On a similar note, recently, a study showed that by following a DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet can lower heart failure risk in individuals under 75. A diet proved to have helpful effects on high blood pressure also might lower the jeopardy of heart failure in individuals under 75 Years, as per to a study. The research of over 4,500 people demonstrated that those people less than 75 Years, who were mostly adhered to the DASH diet had a considerably lower menace of getting heart failure than those whose consumption habits were slightest in keeping with the diet. The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.