Q. Is deli turkey processed meat that should be limited or avoided? – Tufts

A. Fang Fang Zhang, PhD, an associate professor at the Friedman School who specializes in cancer epidemiology, answers: “Processed meat is any meat that has been salted, cured, fermented, smoked, or undergone other processes for preservation or to enhance flavor. The evidence that eating processed meat causes colorectal cancer is strong enough that the World Health Organization has declared processed meat a carcinogen (something that causes cancer).

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“While red meat products such as hot dogs, sausages, ham, bacon, and jerky are the most common types of processed meats, poultry can be processed as well. If you look at the label of even ‘oven roasted’ sliced turkey, you’re likely to see ingredients such as salt, sodium chloride, sodium phosphate, or potassium chloride. These are used to salt meats—meaning the turkey is processed. There is no way for researchers to determine if processed poultry is somehow less risky than processed red meat, so it seems wise to limit or avoid both.

“Experts think part of the link between processed meats and cancer may be related to the presence of nitrates used to cure meat. (Nitrates can be converted in the body to nitrites, which in turn can become potentially cancer-causing nitrosamines.) But the ‘no nitrates added’ label is misleading. In response to consumer concerns about nitrates, many manufacturers started using celery powder, celery juice, or other natural sources instead of synthetic sodium nitrite. Unfortunately, meats cured with these natural substitutes end up containing just as much nitrate and nitrite as traditionally cured meats—and likely pose the same health risks.”

“Experts think part of the link between processed meats and cancer may be related to the presence of nitrates used to cure meat. (Nitrates can be converted in the body to nitrites, which in turn can become potentially cancer-causing nitrosamines.) But the ‘no nitrates added’ label is misleading. In response to consumer concerns about nitrates, many manufacturers started using celery powder, celery juice, or other natural sources instead of synthetic sodium nitrite. Unfortunately, meats cured with these natural substitutes end up containing just as much nitrate and nitrite as traditionally cured meats—and likely pose the same health risks.”

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Wearables data could be a boon to mental health diagnosis

Depression and anxiety are among the most common mental health disorders in the United States, but more than half of people struggling with the conditions are not diagnosed and treated. Hoping to find simple ways to detect such disorders, mental health professionals are considering the role of popular wearable fitness monitors in providing data that could alert wearers to potential health risks.

While the long-term feasibility of detecting such disorders with wearable technology is an open question in a large and diverse population, a team of researchers at Washington University in St. Louis showed that there is reason for optimism. They developed a deep-learning model called WearNet, in which they studied 10 variables collected by the Fitbit activity tracker. Variables included everything from total daily steps and calorie burn rates, to average heart rate and sedentary minutes. The researchers compiled Fitbit data for individuals for more than 60 days.

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When considering depression and anxiety risk factors, WearNet did a better job at detecting depression and anxiety than state-of-the-art machine learning models. Further, it produced individual-level predictions of mental health outcomes, while other statistical analyses of wearable users assess correlations and risks at the group level.

“Deep learning discovers the complex associations of these variable with mental disorders,” said researcher Chenyang Lu, the Fullgraf Professor at the McKelvey School of Engineering and a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. “Machine learning is our most powerful tool to extract these underlying relationships. Our work provided evidence, based on a large and diverse cohort, that it is possible to detect mental disorders with wearables. The next step is to convince a hospital system or some company to implement it.”

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Could a better diet make your brain younger?

Switching to a Green Mediterranean Diet positively affects brain health, according to new research from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Weight loss attenuated brain aging in a sub-study of the DIRECT-PLUS trial.

DIRECT PLUS was a large-scale, long-term clinical trial over 18 months among 300 participants.

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The sub-study was conducted by Prof. Galia Avidan of the Department of Psychology and Dr. Gidon Levakov, a former graduate student at the Department of Cognitive and Brain Sciences.

Their findings were published recently in eLife.

The larger study was led by Prof. Iris Shai of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, an adjunct Professor from the Harvard School of Public Health and an honorary professor at the University of Leipzig, Germany, along with her former graduate student Dr. Alon Kaplan, and colleagues from Harvard and Leipzig Universities.

Obesity is linked with the brain aging faster than would normally be expected. Researchers can capture this process by calculating a person’s ‘brain age’ – how old their brain appears on detailed scans, regardless of chronological age. This approach also helps to check how certain factors, such as lifestyle, can influence brain aging over relatively short time scales.

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Frivolous Friday …

Good morning! I hope you are enjoying June so far.

This is a pure bread dog.

Tony

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Why high school kids are saying no to alcohol

Striking differences in the way high school students socialize may be one of the reasons behind a dramatic drop in youth drinking over the last 20 years, a study from the University of Otago, New Zealand, has found.

Public health researcher Dr Jude Ball has compared attitudes to drinking among high school students in 1999-2001 to those in 2022.

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Dr Ball and colleagues Dr Michaela Pettie and Loleseti Poasa interviewed 64 students aged between 14 and 17 at a co-ed school in Wellington in 2022, and compared their views to 41 Christchurch students aged 14-17 who took part in a 1999-2001 study, the Adolescent Friendships and Lifestyles Project.

Their findings are published in the Asia Pacific journal, Drug and Alcohol Review.

Dr Ball says more than half of those who were in high school 20 years ago were regularly drinking and going to parties by the time they were in Year 10. By Year 12, all had at least some experience of using alcohol with their peers.

“The majority had been drunk at least once or twice and many drank to intoxication on a weekly basis.”

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Decline in dementia could be linked to healthier arteries

Recent articles have reported a possible decline in dementia. What is causing it? Researchers examined data from more than 1500 brain autopsies to find out. The results could help scientists better understand the link between Alzheimer’s disease and cardiovascular health.

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Recent medical publications have reported a decline in the number of new cases of dementia made each year (incidence of the disease). Others question whether a decline in incidence exists. But if there is a decline, what is causing it? You might wonder if it’s because fewer people have the telltale signs of Alzheimer’s disease – amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain. Yet a new study published in February 20 JAMA Neurology shows that there has not been a change in the incidence of this Alzheimer’s pathology.

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Physical activities like a daily, 20-minute walk may help reduce disparities in heart health – AHA

Hearts are kept strong with regular physical activity, and daily activity such as a daily, 20-minute, brisk walk is key; however, some groups may have additional barriers that affect whether or not a daily walk is feasible. Increasing physical activity levels, particularly among people at higher risk for cardiovascular disease, has known heart health benefits and may help reduce cardiovascular health disparities, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published today in the Association’s flagship, peer-reviewed journal Circulation. An American Heart Association scientific statement is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines.

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The new statement, “Increasing Equity of Physical Activity Promotion for Optimal Cardiovascular Health in Adults,” examines physical activity levels among different groups of adults, reviews strategies for increasing physical activity in groups that are under-resourced or at-risk for poor cardiovascular health, and offers suggestions for how to promote physical activity to reduce cardiovascular risk equitably through physical activity.

“Helping everybody improve their heart health is important,” said Gerald J. Jerome, Ph.D., FAHA, volunteer chair of the writing committee for the scientific statement and a professor in the department of kinesiology at Towson University in Towson, Maryland. “We found that many groups who had poor heart health also had low levels of physical activity. We know regular physical activity is a key component of optimal heart health. These findings provide an opportunity to focus our efforts on physical activity programs in places where people need them the most.”

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Celebrate Memorial Day

On this Memorial Day, let’s remember that we live in the land of the free because of the brave …

Art by Frank Brunner

Tony

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Study: Blood Vessel Damage Could Be an Alzheimer’s Driver

Blood vessel abnormalities in the eye are a major factor in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research from Cedars-Sinai investigators published in the peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. These changes correspond to changes in the brain, offering a new possibility for early diagnosis.

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“This study provides a new understanding of the vascular changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease, especially in the retina, the layer of nerve tissue at the back of the eye,” said Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui, PhD, professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Biomedical Sciences at Cedars-Sinai and senior author of the study. “It also points to the damage Alzheimer’s disease causes to the blood vessels in the retina, enabling a new, noninvasive pathway to early diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression.”

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Can exercise lower the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease?

Getting regular exercise such as cycling, walking, gardening, cleaning and participating in sports may decrease the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to new research published in the May 17, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found female participants who exercised the most had a 25% lower rate of Parkinson’s disease when compared to those who exercised the least. The study does not prove that exercise lowers the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. It only shows an association.

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“Exercise is a low-cost way to improve health overall, so our study sought to determine if it may be linked to a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, a debilitating disease that has no cure,” said study author Alexis Elbaz, MD, PhD, of the Inserm Research Center in Paris, France. “Our results provide evidence for planning interventions to prevent Parkinson’s disease.”

The study included 95,354 female participants, mostly teachers, with an average age of 49 who did not have Parkinson’s disease at the start of the study. Researchers followed participants for three decades during which 1,074 participants developed Parkinson’s disease.

Over the course of the study, participants completed up to six questionnaires about the types and amounts of physical activity they were getting. They were asked how far they walked and how many flights of stairs they climbed daily, how many hours they spent on household activities as well as how much time they spent doing moderate recreational activities such as gardening and more vigorous activities such as sports.

Researchers assigned each activity a score based on the metabolic equivalent of a task (METs), a way to quantify energy expenditure. For each activity, METs were multiplied by their frequency and duration to obtain a physical activity score of METs-hours per week. For example, a more intense form of exercise like cycling was six METs, while less intense forms of exercise such as walking and cleaning were three METs. The average physical activity level for participants was 45 METs-hours per week at the start of the study.

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Frivolous Friday …

Tony

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Dementia study reveals how toxic proteins spread through brain

Fresh insights into the spread of damaging proteins that build up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease could hold the key to stopping the condition progressing, a study says.

Researchers have discovered that synapses, which send essential signals through the brain, are also transporting toxic proteins known as tau around the brain.

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Large clumps of the protein tau – called tangles – form in brain cells and are one of the defining features of Alzheimer’s disease. As these tangles spread through the brain during the disease there is a decline in brain function.

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Tetris reveals how people respond to unfair AI

A Cornell University-led experiment in which two people play a modified version of Tetris revealed that players who get fewer turns perceived the other player as less likable, regardless of whether a person or an algorithm allocated the turns.

Most studies on algorithmic fairness focus on the algorithm or the decision itself, but researchers sought to explore the relationships among the people affected by the decisions.

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“We are starting to see a lot of situations in which AI makes decisions on how resources should be distributed among people,” said Malte Jung, associate professor of information science, whose group conducted the study. “We want to understand how that influences the way people perceive one another and behave towards each other. We see more and more evidence that machines mess with the way we interact with each other.”

In an earlier study, a robot chose which person to give a block to and studied the reactions of each individual to the machine’s allocation decisions.

“We noticed that every time the robot seemed to prefer one person, the other one got upset,” said Jung. “We wanted to study this further, because we thought that, as machines making decisions becomes more a part of the world – whether it be a robot or an algorithm – how does that make a person feel?”

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Loneliness has same risk as smoking for heart disease – Harvard

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Artificial intelligence identifies anti-aging drug candidates targeting ‘zombie’ cells

new publication in the May issue of Nature Aging by researchers from Integrated Biosciences, a biotechnology company combining synthetic biology and machine learning to target aging, demonstrates the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to discover novel senolytic compounds, a class of small molecules under intense study for their ability to suppress age-related processes such as fibrosis, inflammation and cancer. The paper,“Discovering small-molecule senolytics with deep neural networks,” authored in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, describes the AI-guided screening of more than 800,000 compounds to reveal three drug candidates with comparable efficacy and superior medicinal chemistry properties than those of senolytics currently under investigation.

Senolytics are an emerging class of investigational drug compounds that selectively kill aging-associated senescent cells (left, with red stain) without affecting other cells (right). Using artificial intelligence, researchers from Integrated Biosciences have, for the first time, identified three senolytics with comparable efficacy and superior drug-like properties relative to leading investigational compounds.

“This research result is a significant milestone for both longevity research and the application of artificial intelligence to drug discovery,” said Felix Wong, Ph.D., co-founder of Integrated Biosciences and first author of the publication. “These data demonstrate that we can explore chemical space in silico and emerge with multiple candidate anti-aging compounds that are more likely to succeed in the clinic, compared to even the most promising examples of their kind being studied today.”

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You are what you eat: healthier diet may improve fitness

A healthy diet is associated with greater physical fitness in middle-aged adults, according to research published today in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1

“This study provides some of the strongest and most rigorous data thus far to support the connection that better diets may lead to higher fitness,” said study author Dr. Michael Mi of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, US. “The improvement in fitness we observed in participants with better diets was similar to the effect of taking 4,000 more steps each day.”

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Cardiorespiratory fitness reflects the body’s ability to provide and use oxygen for exercise, and it integrates the health of multiple organ systems, such as the heart, lungs, blood vessels and muscles. It is one of the most powerful predictors of longevity and health.2 While exercise increases cardiorespiratory fitness, it is also the case that among people who exercise the same amount, there are differences in fitness, suggesting that additional factors contribute. A nutritious diet is associated with numerous health benefits, but it has been unclear whether it is also related to fitness.

This study examined whether a healthy diet is associated with physical fitness in community-dwelling adults. The study included 2,380 individuals in the Framingham Heart Study. The average age was 54 years and 54% were women. Participants underwent a maximum effort cardiopulmonary exercise test on a cycle ergometer to measure peak VO2. This is the gold standard assessment of fitness and indicates the amount of oxygen used during the highest possible intensity exercise.

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