Past News Items - July 2021
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In the News
AllergoSan USA’s Omni-Biotic Stress Release psychobiotic was recognized as Nutraingredients USA Probiotic of the Year.
Vitamin K2 Holds Promise for Alzheimer’s Disease
Our genes shape our gut bacteria, new research shows
Fibromyalgia likely the result of autoimmune problems
Time-Restricted Eating May Reduce Diabetes-Related Hypertension
One Year of Aerobic Exercise Training May Reduce Risk of Alzheimer’s in Older Adults
5-minute breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs
AllergoSan USA’s Omni-Biotic Stress Release psychobiotic was recognized as Nutraingredients USA Probiotic of the Year.
Focusing on true innovation, long-term market success and cutting-edge research, the NutraIngredients-USA Awards honor the best and brightest in ingredients, finished products, companies, people, and initiatives in the nutrition and dietary supplements industry.
Omni-Biotic Stress Release was developed with multiple probiotic strains selected for the ability to strengthen the intestinal epithelial barrier, reduce zonulin levels, increase short chain fatty acid and neurotransmitter production, as well as right-size inflammatory response. Randomized, controlled trials, including fMRI and self-report mechanisms, have further demonstrated significant outcomes including: improvements in mood, memory, stress response, cognitive function, and gastrointestinal comfort.
“The judges were impressed by Omni-Biotic’s® science: Multiple clinical trials performed using the exact formula present in the product, and the focus on stress management, which is seen as being ahead of the potential next wave of probiotics positioned for stress, cognition, and focus. This is a well-formulated product supported by solid science.” Stephen Daniells, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of NutraIngredients-USA commented.
“We are extremely honored to have our Omni-Biotic Stress Release formulation recognized as the NutraIngredients Probiotic of the Year.” says AllergoSan USA’s COO, Hannah Kleinfeld, “Having invested deeply in strain characterization, formulation stability, and human clinical trials, we are immensely gratified that the judges recognize our commitment to science and clinical evidence.”
For more information about Stress Release, including relevant clinical trials, visit: https://www.omnibioticlife.com/gut-brain-axis/
Vitamin K2 Holds Promise for Alzheimer’s Disease
Nutrients recently published a new review paper that examines the body of evidence connecting vitamin K2 to factors involved in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathogenesis, concluding that this demonstrates K2 as having the potential to slow the progression of AD and contribute to its prevention.
In the review, “Vitamin K2 Holds Promise for Alzheimer’s Prevention and Treatment” [1], researchers from the Harvard Extension School and Pacific Northwest University considered the antiapoptotic and antioxidant effects of vitamin K2 and its impact on neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, cognition, cardiovascular health, and comorbidities in AD. In their review, they also “examine the link between dysbiosis and vitamin K2 in the context of the microbiome’s role in AD pathogenesis,” they write. “Our review is the first to consider the physiological roles of vitamin K2 in the context of AD, and, given the recent shift in AD research toward nonpharmacological interventions, our findings emphasize the timeliness and need for clinical studies involving vitamin K2.”
The incidence of AD has risen considerably in recent years, and AD remains a leading cause of chronic disability and death. As the most common type of dementia, AD affects an estimated 6.2 million Americans, a number that is projected to more than double by 2050. Yet the National Institutes of Health notes that correcting certain dietary deficiencies can attribute to the prevention or delay dementia caused by AD, and that what we eat affects the aging brain’s ability to think and remember.[2]
“There is growing evidence for possible dietary risk factors in the development of AD and cognitive decline with age, such as antioxidants, omega-3s, dietary fats, and B vitamins. Moreover, research suggests that people with low levels of vitamin D are more likely to develop AD and other forms of dementia. We are gratified that Vitamin K2 is becoming a prominent part of this conversation, particularly as most of the world’s population expresses a K deficiency,” says Dr. Hogne Vik, NattoPharma Chief Medical Officer. “A 2018 paper [3] connected aortic stiffness with an increased risk of dementia in older adults. By activating matrix Gla protein (MGP), vitamin K2 as MK-7 is the only compound to date shown to impact arterial calcification.”
“NattoPharma’s branded Vitamin K2, MenaQ7, is the only K2 on the market clinically proven to impact cardiovascular health through its activation of MGP, and the only K2 patented for cardiovascular health. But it has also been shown to be anti-inflammatory in human cells and act as an antioxidant, improving endothelial function [5],” Dr Vik continues. “There are 17 K-dependent proteins in the body, and we have a strong understanding of a few, which contribute to blood clotting, bone health, and cardiovascular health. These findings shine a light on the importance of continuing our research to articulate the health benefits of activating additional proteins, and the impact that can have on the global population.”
www.nattopharma.com
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References:
1 Popescu A and German M. “Vitamin K2 Holds Promise for Alzheimer’s Prevention and Treatment.” Nutrients. 2021,13,2206.
2 https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-do-we-know-about-diet-and-prevention-alzheimers-disease
3 Cui C, Sekikawa A, Kuller LH, Lopez OL, Newman AB, Kuipers AL, Mackey RH. “Aortic stiffness is associated with increased risk of incident dementia in older adults.” J Alzheimer’s Dis. 2018;66(1):297-306.
4 Unpublished data
5 Bar A, Kus K, et al. Vitamin K2-MK-7 improves nitric oxide-dependent endothelial function in ApoE/LDLR mice. Vascul Pharmacol. 2019 Aug 14: 106581. Doi: 1016/j.vph.
About NattoPharma
As the Vitamin K2 world leader, NattoPharma's ironclad science portfolio is the foundation for today's understanding of K2 and is the basis for all industry claims about the benefits of K2. NattoPharma offers the ONLY K2 as MK-7 clinically validated to deliver health benefits. With more than 20 human clinical trials where MenaQ7 K2 was the actual source material, we have demonstrated the K2 mechanism, safe and effective dosages, and the importance of K2 for bone and cardiovascular health, all while simultaneously verifying our brand's efficacy.
Our genes shape our gut bacteria, new research shows
Our gut microbiome -- the ever-changing "rainforest" of bacteria living in our intestines -- is primarily affected by our lifestyle, including what we eat or the medications we take, most studies show.
But a University of Notre Dame study has found a much greater genetic component at play than was once known.
In the study, published recently in Science, researchers discovered that most bacteria in the gut microbiome are heritable after looking at more than 16,000 gut microbiome profiles collected over 14 years from a long-studied population of baboons in Kenya's Amboseli National Park. However, this heritability changes over time, across seasons and with age. The team also found that several of the microbiome traits heritable in baboons are also heritable in humans.
"The environment plays a bigger role in shaping the microbiome than your genes, but what this study does is move us away from the idea that genes play very little role in the microbiome to the idea that genes play a pervasive, if small, role," said Elizabeth Archie, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and a principal investigator on the study who is also affiliated with the Eck Institute for Global Health and the Environmental Change Initiative.
The gut microbiome performs several jobs. In addition to helping with food digestion, it creates essential vitamins and assists with training the immune system. This new research is the first to show a definitive connection with heritability.
Previous studies on the gut microbiome in humans showed only 5 to 13 percent of microbes were heritable, but Archie and the research team hypothesized the low number resulted from a "snapshot" approach to studying the gut microbiome: All prior studies only measured microbiomes at one point in time.
In their study, the researchers used fecal samples from 585 wild Amboseli baboons, typically with more than 20 samples per animal. Microbiome profiles from the samples showed variations in the baboons' diets between wet and dry seasons. Collected samples included detailed information about the host, including known descendants, data on environmental conditions, social behavior, demography and group-level diet at the time of collection.
The research team found that 97 percent of microbiome traits, including overall diversity and the abundance of individual microbes, were significantly heritable. However, the percentage of heritability appears much lower -- down to only 5 percent -- when samples are tested from only a single point in time, as is done in humans. This emphasizes the significance of studying samples from the same host over time.
"This really suggests that in human work, part of the reason researchers haven't found that heritability is because in humans they don't have a decade and half of fecal samples in the freezer, and they don't have all the initial host (individual) information they need to tease these details out," said Archie.
The team did find evidence that environmental factors influence trait heritability in the gut microbiome. Microbiome heritability was typically 48 percent higher in the dry season than in the wet, which may be explained by the baboons' more diverse diet during the rainy season. Heritability also increased with age, according to the study.
Because the research also showed the significant impact of environment on the gut microbiomes in baboons, their findings agreed with previous studies showing that environmental effects on the variation in the gut microbiome play a larger role than additive genetic effects. Combined with their discovery of the genetic component, the team plans to refine its understanding of the environmental factors involved.
But knowing that genes in the gut microbiome are heritable opens the door to identifying microbes in the future that are shaped by genetics. In the future, therapies could be tailored for people based on the genetic makeup of their gut microbiome.
The Amboseli Baboon Project, started in 1971, is one of the longest-running studies of wild primates in the world. Focused on the savannah baboon, the project is located in the Amboseli ecosystem of East Africa, north of Mount Kilimanjaro. Research teams have tracked hundreds of baboons in several social groups over the course of their entire lives. Researchers currently monitor around 300 animals, but have accumulated life history information on more than 1,500 animals.
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Fibromyalgia likely the result of autoimmune problems
New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and the Karolinska Institute, has shown that many of the symptoms in fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) are caused by antibodies that increase the activity of pain-sensing nerves throughout the body.
The results show that fibromyalgia is a disease of the immune system, rather than the currently held view that it originates in the brain.
The study, published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, demonstrates that the increased pain sensitivity, muscle weakness, reduced movement, and reduced number of small nerve-fibres in the skin that are typical of FMS, are all a consequence of patient antibodies.
The researchers injected mice with antibodies from people living with FMS and observed that the mice rapidly developed an increased sensitivity to pressure and cold, as well as displaying reduced movement grip strength. In contrast, mice that were injected with antibodies from healthy people were unaffected, demonstrating that patient antibodies cause, or at least are a major contributor to the disease.
Furthermore, the mice injected with fibromyalgia antibodies recovered after a few weeks, when antibodies had been cleared from their system. This finding strongly suggests that therapies which reduce antibody levels in patients are likely to be effective treatments. Such therapies are already available and are used to treat other disorders that are caused by autoantibodies.
Dr David Andersson, the study's primary investigator from King's IoPPN said "The implications of this study are profound. Establishing that fibromyalgia is an autoimmune disorder will transform how we view the condition and should pave the way for more effective treatments for the millions of people affected. Our work has uncovered a whole new area of therapeutic options and should give real hope to fibromyalgia patients.
"Previous exploration of therapies has been hampered by our limited understanding of the illness. This should now change. Treatment for FMS is focussed on gentle aerobic exercises, as well as drug and psychological therapies designed to manage pain, although these have proven ineffective in most patients and have left behind an enormous unmet clinical need."
Current estimates suggest that at least 1 in 40 people are affected by FMS worldwide (80% of which are women) and is commonly characterised by widespread pain throughout the body, as well as fatigue (often referred to as 'fibro fog') and emotional distress. It most commonly develops between the ages of 25 and 55, although children can also get it.
Dr Andreas Goebel, the study's principle clinical investigator from the University of Liverpool said, "When I initiated this study in the UK, I expected that some fibromyalgia cases may be autoimmune. But David's team have discovered pain-causing antibodies in each recruited patient. The results offer amazing hope that the invisible, devastating symptoms of fibromyalgia will become treatable."
Professor Camilla Svensson, the study's primary investigator from Karolinska Institute said, "Antibodies from people with FMS living in two different countries, the UK and Sweden, gave similar results, which adds enormous strength to our findings. The next step will be to identify what factors the symptom-inducing antibodies bind to. This will help us not only in terms of developing novel treatment strategies for FMS, but also of blood-based tests for diagnosis, which are missing today.
Dr Craig Bullock, Research Discovery and Innovations Lead at Versus Arthritis said "Fibromyalgia affects millions of people in the UK and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. It causes pain all over the body, fatigue, disturbed sleep and regular flare-ups where symptoms get even worse.
"Fibromyalgia is a particularly difficult condition to diagnose and manage because its causes are unknown. This research shows that antibodies found in human blood can cause fibromyalgia-like symptoms in mice, suggesting that these antibodies play a crucial role in the condition. Further research is needed but this offers hope to the millions of people with fibromyalgia that an effective treatment could be found in the relatively near future."
Story Source: King's College London
Time-Restricted Eating May Reduce Diabetes-Related Hypertension
A new University of Kentucky College of Medicine study suggests that time-restricted eating may be able to help people with Type 2 diabetes reduce nocturnal hypertension, which is characterized by elevated blood pressure at night.
The study published in PNAS June 22 found that time-restricted eating, a routine in which eating is restricted to a specific window of time during each day, helped prevent and improve diabetes-related nocturnal hypertension in mice.
Study authors Ming Gong, Ph.D., M.D., professor in the Department of Physiology, and Zhenheng Guo, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, are hopeful their findings will mean time-restricted eating could offer similar benefits for people.
“We are excited about these findings and the implications they could have in future clinical studies," said Guo. “In addition to lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, time-restricted eating could have a healthy impact on people with Type 2 diabetes.”
Normally, blood pressure falls at night and increases upon awakening, in line with the body’s circadian rhythm. In some hypertensive patients, the typical nighttime decrease does not occur. This “nondipping” blood pressure is prevalent in patients with Type 2 diabetes and is associated with increased events of cardiovascular disease.
The study found that imposing time-restricted feeding prevented diabetic mice from developing nondipping blood pressure. The practice also effectively restored the disrupted blood pressure circadian rhythm in mice that already had nondipping blood pressure.
Researchers restricted the mice's access to food to eight hours during their typical active awake times every day. When food availability was increased to 12 hours, the practice was still effective in preventing and treating nondipping blood pressure. Guo says this is evidence that the effects were caused by the timing of feeding and not calorie restriction.
In addition to the study’s significance for future clinical research in people, Gong says it’s adding to scientists’ understanding of the causes and mechanisms of nondipping blood pressure in diabetes, which is currently not fully understood.
“There are already many studies that show the health benefits of time-restricted eating, particularly for metabolic issues,” Gong said. “This is the first basic science research focused on how it impacts nondipping blood pressure related to diabetes and it reveals that the daily timing of food intake could play a critical role.”
Source: University of Kentucky
One Year of Aerobic Exercise Training May Reduce Risk of Alzheimer’s in Older Adults
New research suggests one year of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise training improved cardiorespiratory fitness, cerebral blood flow regulation, memory and executive function in people with mild cognitive impairment. The data suggest improvement in cerebrovascular function from exercise training also has the potential to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in older adults, according to the research team at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. The research paper is published in the Journal of Applied Physiology and has been chosen as an APSselect article for July.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, accounting for 60–80% of dementia cases, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The group estimates more than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s.
More facts from the Alzheimer’s Association:
- Alzheimer’s kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
- Alzheimer’s deaths have increased by 16% during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In 2021, Alzheimer’s is projected to cost the nation $355 billion.
In this new study, the research team observed 37 people with mild cognitive impairment, which is a precursor stage of Alzheimer’s disease. At the beginning of the study, the subjects participated in three exercise sessions per week that consisted of brisk walking for 25–30 minutes. By week 11, they exercised four times a week, walking briskly uphill for 30–35 minutes per session. After week 26, exercise sessions increased to four to five times per week for 30–40 minutes.
Using these findings as a building block, a new two-year study is underway to determine the long-term impact of aerobic exercise on Alzheimer’s disease, according to Tsubasa Tomoto, PhD, a member of the research team. The researchers’ goal is to turn the findings of both studies into more practical ways to mitigate the risk of the disease.
Read the full article, “One-year aerobic exercise altered cerebral vasomotor reactivity in mild cognitive impairment.” It is highlighted as one of this month’s “best of the best” as part of the American Physiological Society’s APSselect program. Read all of this month’s selected research articles.
5-minute breathing workout lowers blood pressure as much as exercise, drugs
Working out just five minutes daily via a practice described as “strength training for your breathing muscles” lowers blood pressure and improves some measures of vascular health as well as, or even more than, aerobic exercise or medication, new CU Boulder research shows.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, provides the strongest evidence yet that the ultra-time-efficient maneuver known as High-Resistance Inspiratory Muscle Strength Training (IMST) could play a key role in helping aging adults fend off cardiovascular disease––the nation’s leading killer.
In the United States alone, 65% of adults over age 50 have above-normal blood pressure––putting them at greater risk of heart attack or stroke. Yet fewer than 40% meet recommended aerobic exercise guidelines.
“There are a lot of lifestyle strategies we know can help people maintain cardiovascular health as they age. But the reality is, they take a lot of time and effort and can be expensive and hard for some people to access,” said lead author Daniel Craighead, an assistant research professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology. “IMST can be done in five minutes in your own home while you watch TV.”
Developed in the 1980s as a way to help critically ill respiratory disease patients strengthen their diaphragm and other inspiratory (breathing) muscles, IMST involves inhaling vigorously through a hand-held device which provides resistance. Imagine sucking hard through a tube that sucks back.
Initially, when prescribing it for breathing disorders, doctors recommended a 30-minute-per-day regimen at low resistance. But in recent years, Craighead and colleagues at the University of Arizona have been testing whether a more time-efficient protocol––30 inhalations per day at high resistance, six days per week––could also reap cardiovascular, cognitive and sports performance improvements.
How the study worked
For the new study, they recruited 36 otherwise healthy adults ages 50 to 79 with above normal systolic blood pressure (120 millimeters of mercury or higher). Half did High-Resistance IMST for six weeks; and half did a placebo protocol, in which the resistance was much lower. Participants didn’t know which group they were in.
When assessed after six weeks, the IMST group saw their systolic blood pressure (the top number) dip nine points on average, a reduction which generally exceeds that achieved by walking 30 minutes a day five days a week. That decline is also equal to the effects of some blood pressure-lowering drug regimens.
Even six weeks after they quit doing IMST, they maintained most of that improvement.
“We found not only is it more time-efficient than traditional exercise programs, the benefits may be longer lasting,” Craighead said.
The treatment group also saw a 45% improvement in vascular endothelial function, or the ability for arteries to expand upon stimulation, and a significant increase in levels of nitric oxide, a molecule key for dilating arteries and preventing plaque buildup. Nitric oxide levels naturally decline with age.
Markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, which can also boost heart attack risk, were significantly lower after people did IMST for six weeks.
And, remarkably, those in the IMST group completed 95% of the sessions.
“We have identified a novel form of therapy that lowers blood pressure without giving people pharmacological compounds and with much higher adherence than aerobic exercise,” said senior author Doug Seals, a Distinguished Professor of Integrative Physiology. “That’s noteworthy.”
Promise for postmenopausal women
The practice may be particularly helpful for postmenopausal women.
In previous research, Seals’ lab showed that postmenopausal women who are not taking supplemental estrogen don’t reap as much benefit from aerobic exercise programs as men do when it comes to vascular endothelial function. IMST, the new study showed, improved it just as much in these women as in men.
“If aerobic exercise won’t improve this key measure of cardiovascular health for postmenopausal women, they need another lifestyle intervention that will,” said Craighead. “This could be it.”
Preliminary results from the same group suggest IMST also improved some measures of brain function and physical fitness. And previous studies from other researchers have shown it can be useful for improving sports performance.
“If you’re running a marathon, your respiratory muscles get tired and begin to steal blood from your skeletal muscles,” said Craighead, who uses IMST in his own marathon training. “The idea is that if you build up endurance of those respiratory muscles, that won’t happen and your legs won’t get as fatigued.”
Seals said they’re uncertain exactly how a maneuver to strengthen breathing muscles ends up lowering blood pressure, but they suspect it prompts the cells lining blood vessels to produce more nitric oxide, enabling them to relax.
The National Institutes of Health recently awarded Seals $4 million to launch a larger follow-up study of about 100 people, comparing a 12-week IMST protocol head-to-head with an aerobic exercise program.
Meanwhile, the research group is developing a smartphone app to enable people to do the protocol at home using already commercially available devices.
They say the practice is not necessarily meant to replace exercise but can be a useful option for those who lack access to walking trails or recreation centers, have trouble doing aerobic activities due to health reasons or just want to add another tool to their blood-pressure-lowering toolbox.
Source: University of Colorado Boulder