Skipping Your Workout For 10 Days Reduces Blood Flow To Brain Regions

We all know regular exercise comes with numerous brain health benefits, like improving memory and thinking skills, helping to ward away cognitive decline in old age. However, hitting pause on our workout routine could weigh heavy on our conscious — literally. A recent study published in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience found stopping exercise for just 10 days can significantly reduce blood flow to several brain regions, including the hippocampus.
"We know that the hippocampus plays an important role in learning and memory and is one of the first brain regions to shrink in people with Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. J. Carson Smith, lead author of the study and associate professor of kinesiology at University of Maryland School of Public Health (UMD), in a statement.
Typically, the hippocampus shrinks in late adulthood, which is what leads to impaired memory and increased risk for dementia. Previous research has found the hippocampus responds to exercise training by increasing in volume, and leading to improvements in spatial memory. Aerobic exercise training can be effective at reversing hippocampal volume loss in late adulthood, which is accompanied by improved memory function.
In the UMD study Smith and his colleagues observed ‘master athletes” who were between the ages of 50 and 80 (average age was 61), who had at least 15 years history of participating in endurance exercise, and who have recently competed in an endurance event. The participants' exercise routines included at least four hours of high intensity endurance training each week. On average, they were running ~36 miles each week or the equivalent of a 10K run a day. This group also had a VO2 max — the maximum amount of oxygen the body is capable to use of in one minute — above 90 percent for their age.
Stopping exercise for just 10 days can lead to significantly reduced blood flow in several brain regions.Photo courtesy of Pixabay/Public Domain
An MRI scan was used to measure the velocity of blood flow in the brain while the athletes were following their regular training routine, specifically at peak fitness, and again after 10 days of no exercise. The researchers noted resting cerebral blood flow significantly decreased in eight brain regions, including the areas of the left and right hippocampus, and other regions known to be part of the brain's "default mode network" — a neural network known to deteriorate quickly with Alzheimer's disease. It's important to note these significant changes were regionally specific.
“[T]he take home message is simple - if you do stop exercising for 10 days, just as you will quickly lose your cardiovascular fitness, you will also experience a decrease in blood brain flow” said Smith, about the findings.
A similar study published in the journal Neurology found less fit middle-aged adults saw loss of brain volume after 20 years. Participants performed treadmill tests to estimate their “exercise capacity,” which was measured by monitoring the amount of time they could exercise before their heart rate passed a threshold. The researchers found for every The researchers found those who saw their blood pressure and heart rate surge the most during the treadmill test were “more likely to have smaller brain volumes two decades later,” they wrote. In other words, there was a direct correlation between poor fitness levels and brain volume decades later, which indicates accelerated brain aging.
Stopping exercise for awhile, or the lack of exercise, has important implications on our brain health. More research is needed to confirm how fast these changes occur, and what the long term effects could be. Researchers will also need to look into if these brain changes could be reversed with the resumption of exercise.
Source: Alfini AJ, Weiss LR, Leitner BP et al. Hippocampal and Cerebral Blood Flow after Exercise Cessation in Master Athletes. Front. Aging Neurosci. 2016.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Characteristic Chemical Signature Identified For Debilitating Ailment

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a debilitating and complex disorder that causes severe fatigue that is worsened by physical or mental activity and not improved by bed rest. While there is no cure or known cause for the debilitating ailment, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have identified a characteristic chemical signature.
The researchers used a variety of techniques to identify and assess targeted metabolites in blood plasma that have brought to light an unexpected underlying biology, that is similar to the state of dauer (German word for persistence or long-lived), and other hypometabolic syndromes like caloric restriction, diapause and hibernation. Dauer is a type of period that involves inactivity in the development in some invertebrates that is prompted by harsh environmental conditions. The latest findings were published in Monday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"CFS is a very challenging disease," Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, pediatrics and pathology and director of the Mitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center at UC San Diego School of Medicine said. "It affects multiple systems of the body. Symptoms vary and are common to many other diseases. There is no diagnostic laboratory test. Patients may spend tens of thousands of dollars and years trying to get a correct diagnosis."
According to estimates, as many as 2.5 million Americans are believed to have CFS, which mostly affects women in their 30s to 50s. CFA has eight official signs and symptoms, including the central symptom of severe fatigue.

• Loss of memory or concentration
• Sore throat
• Enlarged lymph nodes in your neck or armpits
• Unexplained muscle pain
• Pain that moves from one joint to another without swelling or redness
• Headache of a new type, pattern or severity
• Unrefreshing sleep
• Extreme exhaustion lasting more than 24 hours after physical or mental exercise

Naviaux and his colleagues studied 84 subjects, which include 45 men and women who met the diagnostic criteria for CFS and 39 matched controls. The researchers targeted 612 metabolites (substances produced by the processes of metabolism) from 63 biochemical pathways in blood plasma to conduct the study. Researchers found that individuals with CFS showed abnormalities in 20 metabolic pathways. According to the report, the diagnostic accuracy rate exceeded 90 percent.
"Despite the heterogeneity of CFS, the diversity of factors that lead to this condition, our findings show that the cellular metabolic response is the same in patients," Naviaux said. "And interestingly, it's chemically similar to the dauer state you see in some organisms, which kicks in when environmental stresses trigger a slow-down in metabolism to permit survival under conditions that might otherwise cause cell death. In CFS, this slow-down comes at the cost of long-term pain and disability."
Possible complications of chronic fatigue syndrome include:

• Depression
• Social isolation
• Lifestyle restrictions
• Increased work absences

According to the first author, the findings show that CFS possesses an objectively identifiable chemical signature in both men and women and that targeted metabolomics, which provide direct small molecule information, can provide actionable treatment information. The diagnosis of CFS required only 25 percent of the metabolite disturbances found in each person were needed for. Naviaux said that roughly 75 percent of abnormalities were unique to each individual, something that is useful in guiding personalized treatment.
"This work opens a fresh path to both understanding the biology of CFS and, more importantly to patients, a robust, rational way to develop new therapeutics for a disease sorely in need of them," Naviaux added

Zika vs. West Nile Symptoms 2016

In the summer of 1999, the United States was thrust into West Nile Virus furor as the virus which only had been reported in Africa, Europe, and Asia made its way to the Americas for the first time. Now, Zika has made a similar journey to cause a stir on this side of the Atlantic, just as West Nile did nearly twenty years before. Although the two may have similar origins and routes of transmission, there are important differences between West Nile and Zika that make the two viruses strikingly distinct.

Similarities

Both the Zika virus and West Nile are diseases that originated in Africa and are  transmitted by mosquitos. Mosquitoes cause more human suffering than any other organism, and lead to over one million deaths worldwide every year, The American Mosquito Control Association reported. Zika and West Nile are both classified as flaviviruses, as well as yellow fever, chikungunya, dengue virus, and most mosquito-borne illnesses, CNN reported.
The mosquito causes more world-wide deaths than any other organism. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay
The two viruses also have similar symptoms. For example, in both viruses the majority of those infected show no symptoms. For those who do show symptoms, both viruses can cause fever, headache, tiredness, and body aches. In addition, Zika virus is also characterized by a large rash, but this symptom is far less common in West Nile infections. Zika is also characterized by red bloodshot eyes, something that is absent in West Nile infections.
Like most mosquito-borne diseases, there are no vaccines or cures for either Zika or West Nile. The main way to protect yourself and your family from mosquito-borne diseases is to prevent mosquito bites. This can be done by both destroying mosquito breeding grounds and wearing insect repellent and covering exposed skin.

Differences

Although both diseases have the same method of transmission, the Zika virus is spread by only two mosquito species. According to National Geographic, the West Nile virus is known to be carried by at least 65 mosquito species. What’s more, although both viruses have non-human hosts, the West Nile is only known to infect birds while Zika infects non-human primates.
In addition to mosquito bites, both Zika and West Nile can spread from mother to child during pregnancy. West Nile is also spread from mother to child via breastfeeding, while this route of transmission has not been documented in Zika. In addition, Zika virus can spread through sexual intercourse, but the West Nile virus cannot.
The diseases share some similar mild symptoms, such as fever and muscle weakness, but are characterized by vastly different serious complications. In rare instances (about one percent of all cases) West Nile virus can infect the human nervous system and cause diseases such as meningitis or encephalitis. West Nile has also been linked to “profound muscle weakness” so bad that some patients need to be put on respirators. West Nile is also known to cause long-lasting paralysis that resembles polio, and can even kill.
Zika, on the other hand, is far less of a threat to the health of the general population, but instead has been linked to a serious birth defect called microcephaly in newborn babies whose mothers were infected with the virus during their pregnancy. Zika is also believed to be connected to cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition in which a person’s immune system attacks his or her nerves, although this is still not confirmed.
Read More:
West Nile Virus Is More Dangerous For The Elderly, And The Reason May Lie In The Speed of Their Immune System: Read Here
Zika Early Symptoms 2016: Warning Signs That You're Infected And What To Do: Read Here

Health Risks Of Tylenol, Generics

The popping of a Tylenol pill, which contains acetaminophen, come headache or hangover, is practically a reflex. (Just don’t expect it to help with your neck or back pain.) But are there any health risks we should be on the lookout for concerning the over-the-counter painkiller? Here's a brief look.
As Medical Daily has explained, acetaminophen is one of the earliest discovered painkilling medications we still use today, second only to aspirin. And in many circumstances, it’s the safest one to turn to. Children under the age of 18 shouldn’t take aspirin, because it may cause a rare, potentially fatal condition known as Reye syndrome when given to children already suffering from a viral infection. And though ibuprofen can be used with young children, only acetaminophen is recommended for infants younger than 6 months old.
Acetaminophen does come with its own set of rare but serious health risks, though. Research has linked it to liver toxicity as well as kidney and gastrointestinal issues, including bleeding. There’s also some limited evidence that taking painkillers like acetaminophen can dull our emotions. And it’s estimated that overdoses of the drug lead to nearly 500 deaths and 56,000 emergency room visits in the U.S. annually. The threat of overdose has become so prevalent that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called it a “persistent, important public health problem” in 2013. And there have since been labeling changes prompted by the FDA to help better warn customers about overdosing or combining it with alcohol.
None of this means that you should throw your bottle of Tylenol or generic acetaminophen out the window or suffer for hours with a migraine on the small chance of harm. It just reaffirms one of the most important lessons of medicine: No drug or therapy, no matter how miraculous it might seem, comes risk-free.

Effects Of Secondhand Pot Smoke Exposure

A new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Associationsuggests that secondhand smoke is dangerous to our cardiovascular system, regardless of whether it comes from marijuana or tobacco.

Laboratory rats who were exposed to secondhand smoke from a marijuana cigarette had a similar problem with their blood vessels’ ability to widen as rats who were exposed to tobacco secondhand smoke. Rats exposed to marijuana smoke for one minute took 90 minutes to recover fully, about three times as long as it took for those exposed to tobacco.

“While the effect is temporary for both cigarette and marijuana smoke, these temporary problems can turn into long-term problems if exposures occur often enough and may increase the chances of developing hardened and clogged arteries,” said senior author Dr. Matthew Springer, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco’s Division of Cardiology, in a statement.

Springer and his colleagues were motivated to conduct their study after feeling that there was little public attention being paid to the possibility that marijuana smoke can be harmful.

“There is widespread belief that, unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is benign,” Springer said. “We in public health have been telling the public to avoid secondhand tobacco smoke for years, but we don't tell them to avoid secondhand marijuana smoke, because until now we haven’t had evidence that it can be harmful.”

The truth is, we’re still not even really sure how harmful directly smoking marijuana is to our hearts. A 2014 study found that serious heart problems rarely occur immediately following cannabis use. Another found that a marijuana smoker’s risk of heart attack within a hour was five times greater compared to nonsmokers — a very small risk comparable to an especially strenuous bout of sex or exercise. Yet another study found an increased risk of death among patients who already suffered an earlier heart attack and who regularly smoked pot.

But longer-term studies are lacking, much less those looking only at secondhand smoke. And there’s some evidence to suggest that there might be a sort of "marijuana paradox,” where the inhaling of marijuana can temporarily increase the risk of some cardiovascular problems, but the active cannabinoids contained in it can also slow down the progression of atherosclerosis (the hardening and narrowing of arteries).

That theory lines up well with some of the findings of the current study. When the researchers removed tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) from the marijuana cigarettes they exposed their rats to, the blood vessel disruption could still be seen; the same thing happened when they removed the paper the cigarette was rolled in. The later experiments indicate that the burning smoke itself, rather than the active components of marijuana, may be to blame for the rats’ narrower blood vessels.

Still, while animal studies are an important tool for discovery, we can only glean so much from them. Springer and his colleagues acknowledged that their study is far from the final word on the subject, but they hope their results can motivate other scientists to look more closely at marijuana.

“Increasing legalization of marijuana makes it more important than ever to understand the consequences of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke,” they concluded. “It is important that the public, medical personnel, and policymakers understand that exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke is not necessarily harmless.”

Source: Wang X, Derakhshandeh R, Liu J, et al. One Minute of Marijuana Secondhand Smoke Exposure Substantially Impairs Vascular Endothelial Function.Journal of the American Heart Association. 2016.