Category: Nutrition

Diets rich in two nutrients harm immune cells in the gut, putting people at high risk of intestinal infections.

A diet rich in fat and sugar damages particular immune cells named Paneth cells that produce antimicrobial molecules keeping inflammation and microbes under control.

Highly specialised Paneth cells are located in the small intestine where nutrients from food are absorbed and sent to the bloodstream.

Western diets are high in processed foods and fat and sugar, which cause Paneth cells to not work properly.

Paneth cell dysfunction cause abnormalities in the gut immune system which in turn leads to infections (disease-causing microbes) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a study has found.

Dr Ta-Chiang Liu, the study’s first author, said:

“Inflammatory bowel disease has historically been a problem primarily in Western countries such as the U.S., but it’s becoming more common globally as more and more people adopt Western lifestyles.

Our research showed that long-term consumption of a Western-style diet high in fat and sugar impairs the function of immune cells in the gut in ways that could promote inflammatory bowel disease or increase the risk of intestinal infections.”

IBD patients often have defective Paneth cells, which are responsible for setting off inflammation in the small intestine.

For instance, Paneth cells can no longer function in patients with Crohn’s disease, which is a type of IBD and marked by fatigue, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, and anaemia.

The research team examined Paneth cells of 400 adults and found that the higher the body mass index (BMI) the worse these cells looked.

Frequent consumption of foods high in sugar and fat causes weight gain and has many health consequences.

These two macronutrients generally make up more than 40 percent of the calories of a typical Western diet.

The scientists fed mice a high sugar, high fat diet and in two months they became obese and had abnormal Paneth cells.

Dr Liu said:

“Eating too much of a healthy diet didn’t affect the Paneth cells.

It was the high-fat, high-sugar diet that was the problem.”

When a healthy diet replaced the Western diet, within four weeks, the Paneth cells were restored to normal.

Dr Liu said:

“This was a short-term experiment, just eight weeks.

In people, obesity doesn’t occur overnight or even in eight weeks.

It’s possible that if you have Western diet for so long, you cross a point of no return and your Paneth cells don’t recover even if you change your diet.

We’d need to do more research before we can say whether this process is reversible in people.”

In addition, deoxycholic acid (a secondary bile acid produce by bacteria in the gut) is involved in carbohydrate and fat metabolism.

Bile acid plays a key role regarding Paneth cell abnormality since it increases the activity of the farnesoid X receptor (involved in sugar and fat metabolism) and type 1 interferon (part of the immune system active in the antiviral responses) thus hindersing Paneth cell from working properly.

The study was published in the Cell Host & Microbe (Liu et al., 2021).

The vitamin helps ward off respiratory infections and enhances the immune response to the virus.

Vitamin D deficiency makes people vulnerable to coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, a report reveals.

Vitamin D is crucial for the immune system: it improves the body’s defence response against infections, helps avert respiratory infections, and reduces the need for antibiotics.

The scientists point out that vitamin D is a seasonal vitamin and and so emphasise the need for vitamin D intake.

The study highlights that one-in-five Irish adults aged 55 and older are deficient during the winter and one-in-eight adults over 50 are deficient all year round.

Exposure to the sun for even 15 minutes daily can give the body a chance to make enough vitamin D.

In Northern countries, vitamin D cannot be produced in winter so the only chance to make it is between late March and late September.

The amount of exposure to the sun through this period also depends on factors such as rainy days, cloud cover, and so on.

In that case, with the correct diet and supplementation, deficiency can be avoided.

Vitamin D is found in foods such as oily fish including salmon, trout, mackerel, and sardines, eggs, liver, and some fortified foods including diary.

People who are in isolation at home and have no exposure to the sun are at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

The other vulnerable group are those who are physically inactive, obese, have chronic lung disease or asthma.

For these reasons it may be important to consume a diet high in vitamin D or take vitamin D supplements, which are available over-the-counter.

The research team say that vitamin D supplementation is advisable for people over 50 who don’t get enough sunlight or those who are ‘cocooning’ because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Professor Rose Anne Kenny, the lead researcher of the study, said:

“We have evidence to support a role for Vitamin D in the prevention of chest infections, particularly in older adults who have low levels.

In one study Vitamin D reduced the risk of chest infections to half in people who took supplements.

Though we do not know specifically of the role of Vitamin D in COVID infections, given its wider implications for improving immune responses and clear evidence for bone and muscle health, those cocooning and other at-risk cohorts should ensure they have an adequate intake of Vitamin D.

Cocooning is a necessity but will reduce physical activity.

Muscle deconditioning occurs rapidly in these circumstances and Vitamin D will help to maintain muscle health and strength in the current crisis.”

The report was published by Trinity College Dublin (Kenny et al., 2020).

Following this diet plan for one year promotes certain gut bacteria which lead to healthy ageing.

Sticking to a Mediterranean diet for one year will enhance specific gut bacteria associated with ‘healthy’ ageing.

Older people will also get more benefit from adopting this regimen as it lowers harmful inflammation which are responsible for loss of cognitive function, sarcopenia (muscle loss), development of diabetes, and atherosclerosis (narrowing of the arteries).

A person’s bodily functions deteriorate and inflammation increases with aging and the result is physiological decline in late life.

Now experts say that a Mediterranean diet helps those bacteria associated with healthy ageing to increase rapidly, which in turn hinders age-related cognitive decline and physical diseases.

Past studies have found that restrictive or poor diets commonly consumed by older people, especially those who live in residential care homes, reduces good gut bacteria and increases aging-associated diseases.

A research team examined the effect of a 12-month Mediterranean diet on people between 65 to 79 years old to find out if changing to a healthy diet would reverse the negative outcomes of a poor diet.

They compared the gut microbiome of these subjects before and after with those who continued their usual diet.

The Mediterranean diet is low in saturated fats and red meat but high in legumes, nuts, fruits and vegetables, fish, and olive oil.

The Mediterranean diet is rich in fibre, vitamin C, B1, B6 and B9 vitamins, high in minerals including iron, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and copper.

They saw changes in the gut microbiome, including a reduction of bacteria producing bile acids and an increase in bacteria producing beneficial short chain fatty acids.

High production of bile acids damages the cells as well as increasing the risk of fatty liver, insulin resistance, and bowel cancer.

Furthermore, the Mediterranean diet worked as a ‘keystone’ for the beneficial bacteria helping them to multiply and improving the gut ecosystem.

The authors wrote:

“The interplay of diet, microbiome and host health is a complex phenomenon influenced by several factors.

While the results of this study shed light on some of the rules of this three-way interplay, several factors such as age, body mass index, disease status and initial dietary patterns may play a key role in determining the extent of success of these interactions.”

The study was published in the journal of GUT (Ghosh et al., 2020).

One-quarter of people may have a vitamin B12 deficiency.

Sores around the mouth or ulcers inside it can be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency.

The sores can appear at the corner of the mouth and may appear at the edge of the lip.

These are not blisters, but raw areas that come and go.

Mouth ulcers — also known as canker sores — are small shallow lesions inside the mouth that can make eating painful.

They are not usually serious and often clear up within a week or two.

However, they can be a sign that vitamin B12 levels are low.

Other common signs of vitamin B12 deficiency include a lower appetite, headaches, a feeling of tiredness or depression and feeling breathless after minimal exercise.

One study has found that taking vitamin B12 supplementation can reduce mouth ulcers and the pain associated with them.

For the study, 58 people with mouth ulcers either took vitamin B12 supplements or a placebo for six months.

Three-quarters of people who took the vitamin were free of ulcers by the end of the study.

Only 32% of people who took a placebo were free of ulcers over the same period.

The authors explain the results:

“The average outbreak duration and the average number of ulcers per month decreased in both groups during the first four months of the trial.

However, the duration of outbreaks, the number of ulcers, and the level of pain were reduced significantly at five and six months of treatment with vitamin B12, regardless of initial vitamin B12 levels in the blood.

During the last month of treatment a significant number of participants in the intervention group reached ‘no aphthous ulcers status’”

Vitamin B12 deficiency is easy to rectify with supplements or by dietary changes.

The body uses vitamin B12 to make red blood cells and to keep the nervous system healthy.

Vitamin B12 levels can be boosted through supplementation or by eating foods such as dairy, liver, salmon and eggs.

Fortified breakfast cereals also contain vitamin B12.

The study was published in The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (Volkov et al., 2009).

Higher levels of this type of fat in the blood can add five years to your lifespan.

A study has found that raising levels of omega−3 fatty acids in blood can lower the risk of premature death similar to quitting smoking, an equivalent to adding 4.7 years of life.

Omega-3 fatty acids are well-known for their beneficial health effect, thus the American Heart Association recommends eating oily fish such as trout, salmon, sardines, and anchovies twice weekly.

For the study, researchers used the omega-3 index test to measure EPA and DHA content in red blood cells (RBC), an excellent way to predict the risk of death from all causes.

They analysed data from the Framingham Offspring Cohort study, which has tracked Massachusetts residents in the United States over 11 years.

Dr Aleix Sala-Vila, the study’s co-author, said:

“Having higher levels of these acids in the blood, as a result of regularly including oily fish in the diet, increases life expectancy by almost five years.

Being a regular smoker takes 4.7 years off your life expectancy, the same as you gain if you have high levels of omega-3 acids in your blood.”

The study compared RBC fatty acids levels with standard risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in predicting premature death.

Some well known risk factors are age, total cholesterol, high blood pressure, and smoking.

The results show that four types of fatty acids, including omega-3 are better predictors of mortality risk.

Two of these predictors belong to saturated fatty acids which have often been associated with heart disease risk but in this study were linked to longer life.

A diet rich in omega−3 fatty acids improves the eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) content in erythrocytes (red blood cells) resulting in nearly 5 years of human life expansion.

Dr Sala-Vila said:

“This reaffirms what we have been seeing lately, not all saturated fatty acids are necessarily bad.”

The correct amount of dietary fatty acids may contribute considerably to individual health.

Dr Sala-Vila added:

 “What we have found is not insignificant.

It reinforces the idea that small changes in diet in the right direction can have a much more powerful effect than we think, and it is never too late or too early to make these changes.”

The study was published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (McBurney et al., 2021).

82 percent had insufficient levels of the vitamin, the results of the study found.

Gut problems are a simple sign of vitamin D deficiency.

This can include bloating, diarrhea, stomach pain and cramps.

Vitamin D helps keep the immune system and the gut healthy.

Indeed vitamin D deficiency makes people vulnerable to coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, a recent report reveals.

Fully 82% of people with Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) are deficient in vitamin D, research finds.

Vitamin D deficiency has also been linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Dr Bernard Corfe, who led the study, said:

“Our work has shown that most IBS sufferers in our trial had insufficient levels of vitamin D.

Furthermore there was an association between vitamin D status and the sufferer’s perceived quality of life, measured by the extent to which they reported impact on IBS on life.”

The study included 51 people with IBS, 82% of whom had insufficient vitamin D levels.

Around half the world’s general population is deficient in vitamin D.

From October to March many people in northern climes do not get enough vitamin D.

Vitamin D is found in oily fish, egg yolks, fortified cereals and some margarine spreads.

Most people need around 10 micrograms per day, which can also be obtained from supplements.

Dr Corfe said:

“It was clear from our findings that many people with IBS should have their vitamin D levels tested, and the data suggests that they may benefit from supplementation with vitamin D.

As a result of this exploratory study, we’re now able to design and justify a larger and more definitive clinical trial.”

IBS affects around 10-15% of people around the world.

The cause is unknown, but both diet and stress affect the symptoms.

One IBS sufferer, researcher Vicky Grant, explained:

“I read about other IBS patients experiencing success with vitamin D, via the online patient community.

I wasn’t really expecting the vitamin D supplements to work as I had tried and failed with so many other treatments.

I’m not cured but I have found that supplementation has dramatically improved my IBS.”

The study was published in the journal BMJ Open Gastroenterology (Tazzyman et al., 2015).

The deficiency is easy to rectify with diet or supplementation.

Mental confusion can be a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency, research suggests.

People with a B12 deficiency can have problems with their memory and concentration.

Depression symptoms like low mood and low energy are also linked to the deficiency.

Low levels of vitamin B12 can even contribute to brain shrinkage, other studies have suggested.

Around one-in-eight people over 50 are low in vitamin B12 levels, recent research finds.

The rates of deficiency are even higher in those who are older.

Fortunately, these deficiencies are easy to rectify with diet or supplementation.

Good dietary sources of vitamin B12 include fish, poultry, eggs and low-fat milk.

Fortified breakfast cereals also contain vitamin B12.

People who may have difficulty getting enough vitamin B12 include vegetarians, older people and those with some digestive disorders, such as Crohn’s disease.

One study has found that high doses of B vitamins can help reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is one of the most serious types of mental illness.

It can cause delusions, hallucinations, confused thinking and dramatic changes in behaviour.

The study reviewed 18 different clinical trials, including 832 patients.

It found that high doses of B vitamins helped reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia.

The vitamins were particularly effective if used early on in treatment.

Dr Joseph Firth, the study’s lead author, said:

“Looking at all of the data from clinical trials of vitamin and mineral supplements for schizophrenia to date, we can see that B vitamins effectively improve outcomes for some patients.

This could be an important advance, given that new treatments for this condition are so desperately needed.”

Professor Jerome Sarris, study co-author, said:

“This builds on existing evidence of other food-derived supplements, such as certain amino-acids, been beneficial for people with schizophrenia.”

The study was published in the journal Psychological Medicine (Firth et al., 2017).

A simple modification in this diet improves psoriasis skin and reduces joint inflammation.

A high-sugar and moderate-fat diet such as the Western diet can upset the gut microbiota leading to joint inflammation and inflammatory skin disease.

However, according to a study, a simple diet modification of less fat and less sugar will restore gut health and lower inflammation.

Professor Sam Hwang, the study’s senior author, said:

“Earlier studies have shown that Western diet, characterized by its high sugar and fat content, can lead to significant skin inflammation and psoriasis flares.

Despite having powerful anti-inflammatory drugs for the skin condition, our study indicates that simple changes in diet may also have significant effects on psoriasis.”

Psoriasis is an immune system disorder in which immune cells mistakenly attack skin cells causing inflammation and red itchy scaly patches of skin.

Nearly one third of people with psoriasis suffer from psoriatic arthritis, showing symptoms such as fatigue, morning stiffness, joint pain, swollen fingers or toes, changes in the nails, and lower back pain.

Modern dietary patterns such as the Western diet appear to have a direct impact on skin inflammation by changing the gut microbial balance.

A Western-style diet is generally high in sugar and fat, which both have a harmful effect on the microbial community and their function leading to gut dysbiosis and so inflammatory diseases.

The study tested if gut dysbiosis can lead to skin and joint inflammation.

They injected interleukin-23 minicircles in mice to produce an immune response that looked like psoriatic arthritis.

Interleukin-23 is secreted by the inflammatory immune cells accountable for conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and psoriasis.

The research team noticed that consuming a Western diet, even for a short period of time, causes microbial imbalance and increases the levels of interleukin-23-mediated psoriasis.

Professor Hwang said:

“There is a clear link between skin inflammation and changes in the gut microbiome due to food intake.

The bacterial balance in the gut disrupted shortly after starting a Western diet, and worsened psoriatic skin and joint inflammation.”

The team then wanted to see if the gut microbiota can be restored by changing to a balanced diet.

For six weeks, mice were fed a Western diet and then an interleukin-23-inducing agent to set off psoriatic skin and joint inflammation.

Later, the mice were divided into two groups; one continuously received the diet for one more month and the second group was fed with a balanced diet instead.

Ten weeks eating a Western diet caused skin and joint inflammation in mice, whereas shifting to a balanced diet reduced scaling skin in the second group.

This indicates that reducing sugar and fat intakes can lower the pro-inflammatory response and gut microbiota alteration (dysbiosis).

Dr Zhenrui Shi, the study’s first author, said:

“It was quite surprising that a simple diet modification of less sugar and fat may have significant effects on psoriasis.

These findings reveal that patients with psoriatic skin and joint disease should consider changing to a healthier dietary pattern.”

The study was published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (Shi et al., 2021).

74% of people were free of this after vitamin B12 supplementation.

Mouth ulcers — also known as canker sores — are a sign of vitamin B12 deficiency.

They are small shallow lesions inside the mouth that can make eating painful.

The sores can develop around the tongue, cheek or gums.

They are not usually serious and generally clear up within a week or two, but can be irritating.

Taking vitamin B12 can help reduce the number of mouth ulcers and the pain, a study has found.

Fully 74% of people were free of ulcers after vitamin B12 supplementation.

Dr Ilia Volkov, the study’s first author, said:

“…the frequency of RAS [Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis, or mouth ulcers] is as much as 25 percent in the general population, however, until now, there has been no optimal therapeutic approach.”

Vitamin B12 is involved in the production of red blood cells.

A deficiency — which is more frequent in those over 60 — can cause anemia, which is a lack of red blood cells.

This can make people feel fatigued due to a lack of oxygen.

For the study, 58 people with mouth ulcers either took vitamin B12 supplements or a placebo for six months.

Three-quarters of people who took the vitamin were free of ulcers by the end of the study.

Only 32% of people who took a placebo were free of ulcers over the same period.

The authors explain the results:

“The average outbreak duration and the average number of ulcers per month decreased in both groups during the first four months of the trial.

However, the duration of outbreaks, the number of ulcers, and the level of pain were reduced significantly at five and six months of treatment with vitamin B12, regardless of initial vitamin B12 levels in the blood.

During the last month of treatment a significant number of participants in the intervention group reached ‘no aphthous ulcers status'”

The study was published in The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine (Volkov et al., 2009).