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Allergies, Author Interviews, PLoS, Probiotics / 13.12.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Kamal Ivory Institute of Food Research Norwich Research Park Norwich, UK Gut Health & Food Safety ISP The Institute of Food Research receives strategic funding from BBSRC MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ivory: In the present study we show that administration of probiotics in the gut can induce changes at the nasal mucosa where the immune system meets pollen allergen. This implies a potential to alter the course of allergic rhinitis. However, in our single high dose pollen challenge in the clinic (out of pollen season), we did not measure any significant changes in the clinical parameters we had set. It is not clear if this was because a single challenge fails to replicate occurrence during natural seasonal exposure to pollen in terms of dosage and timing. That aside, the mode of action may vary from one probiotic organism to another and it is possible that a cocktail of probiotic organisms may be needed for clinical effectiveness. If funding becomes available, we would like to repeat the study during the pollen season. (more…)
Author Interviews, Depression, General Medicine, PLoS / 25.11.2013

Alize J. Ferrari University of Queensland School of Population Health Herston, Queensland, AustraliaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alize J. Ferrari University of Queensland School of Population Health Herston, Queensland, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In our paper recently published in PloS Medicine, we report findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 for depression. We found that depression (defined as major depressive disorder and dysthymia) accounted fr 8% of the non fatal burden in 2010, making it the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Burden due to depression increased by 35% between 1990 and 2010, although this increase was entirely driven by population growth and ageing. Burden occurred across the entire lifespan, was higher in females compared to males, and there were differences between world regions.When depression was considered a risk factor for other health outcomes it explained 46% of the burden allocated to suicide and 3% of the burden allocated ischemic heart disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, PLoS, Weight Research / 16.11.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Guang Sun MD, PhD Professor, Discipline of medicine Faculty of medicine, Memorial University Canada MedicalResearch.com:  What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Sun: Plenty of anecdotal reports on how ‘Food Addiction’ may be a potential culprit of the rising prevalence of obesity. However to date no scientific study, based on a comprehensive criterion of the diagnosis of Food Addiction, has been performed at the population level. The main findings are in the following fours aspects: 1)         Food Addiction is indeed an important contributing factor in the development of obesity. 2)         The prevalence of Food Addition was 5.4% and increased concomitantly with obesity status defined by either body mass index (BMI) or body fat percentage (%BF). In another word, there is one food addict in every twenty adults (Newfoundland Province, Canada) 3)         Clinical Symptom Count(s) of Food Addiction is strongly associated with the severity of obesity. 4)         Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with “Food Addiction” than men. (more…)
General Medicine, PLoS / 12.11.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonas D. Finger and  Dr. Gert B.M. Mensink Jonas Finger, MPhil (Epidemiology) MA (Sports Sc) MA (Political Sc) Robert Koch-Institute - Department of Epidemiology and Health MonitoringDivision 24 - Interview surveys and European collaboration General-Pape-Straße 62-66, 12101 Berlin Germany MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: People with a low level of education consume energy dense foods (sugar- and fat-rich foods) more frequently and low energy foods (fruit and vegetables) and alcohol less frequently compared to people with a high level of education. A new study aspect is that the role of physical activity level for the link between education and high energy food intake was also investigated. People with a low level of education have more frequently physically-demanding jobs leading to a higher level of total energy expenditure compared to sedentary office workers (mainly high educated). The latter are more active in their leisure time. The study provides some evidence to support the hypothesis that the low educated consumed more energy dense foods than the high educated because they expend more energy due to the physical work they do. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, PLoS / 02.10.2013

Professor of Neuroscience Programme Director for BSc and MSci Pharmacology degrees School of Physiology & Pharmacology Medical and Veterinary Sciences University Walk University of Bristol Bristol, BS8 1TD.Neil V. Marrion, PhD Professor of Neuroscience Programme Director for BSc and MSci Pharmacology degrees School of Physiology & Pharmacology Medical and Veterinary Sciences University Walk University of Bristol Bristol, BS8 1TD. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Marrion: We tested pravastatin and atorvostatin (two commonly prescribed statins) in rat learning and memory models.  Rats were treated daily with pravastatin (brand name - Pravachol) or atorvostatin (brand name - Lipitor) for 18 days. The rodents were tested in a simple learning task before, during and after treatment, where they had to learn where to find a food reward. On the last day of treatment and following one week withdrawal, the rats were also tested in a task which measures their ability to recognise a previously encountered object (recognition memory). The study’s findings showed that pravastatin tended to impair learning over the last few days of treatment although this effect was fully reversed once treatment ceased. However, in the novel object discrimination task, pravastatin impaired object recognition memory.  While no effects were observed for atorvostatin in either task. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Mayo Clinic, Parkinson's, PLoS / 19.09.2013

Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Health Sciences Research Division of Epidemiology Mayo Clinic 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905MedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Health Sciences Research Division of Epidemiology Mayo Clinic 200 First Street SW Rochester, MN 55905 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Mielke: Among Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, plasma levels of ceramides and monohexylceramides were higher in patients with cognitive impairment or dementia compared to patients who were cognitively normal.  Levels of these lipids were also higher in the combined group of PD patients compared to non-PD controls but the number of controls were small. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Medical Research Centers, PLoS, Social Issues / 05.09.2013

Bert Uchino PhD Department of Psychology and Health Psychology Program University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UtahMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bert Uchino PhD Department of Psychology and Health Psychology Program University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Uchino: The main findings from our paper is that independent of one’s own social network quality, the quality of a spouse’s social network was related to daily life ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) levels.  More specifically, the more supportive (positive) ties, and the less aversive (negative) or ambivalent (both positive and negative) ties in a spouse’s social network, the lower was one’s own  ABP.  In addition, looking at the social networks of couples as a whole showed that couples who combined had more supportive ties and less aversive or ambivalent ties showed lower ABP. (more…)
Author Interviews, Orthopedics, PLoS / 04.09.2013

Assistant Professor School of Biological & Population Health Sciences, Exercise & Sport Science Program College of Public Health and Human Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331Marc F. Norcross, PhD, ATC Assistant Professor School of Biological & Population Health Sciences, Exercise & Sport Science Program College of Public Health and Human Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Norcross: In the scientific community, there remains considerable disagreement over which direction of knee loading is most responsible for causing an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury event.  Many researchers tend to fall into one of three “camps” in which they believe quadriceps loading (sagittal plane), “knock-kneed” landing (frontal plane), or twisting (transverse plane) is the essential factor in the injury mechanism.  However, we know from cadaver studies that combined loading from all of these different planes puts the most strain on the ACL.  We found that men and women are equally likely to use a sagittal plane landing strategy that we believe increases the risk for ACL injury.  However, females were about 3.6 times more likely than males to use a higher risk frontal plane landing strategy.  This suggests that the increased likelihood of greater frontal plane loading in women coupled with the equal likelihood of using a high-risk sagittal plane strategy is likely at least partly responsible for women’s 2-6 times greater risk for ACL injury. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, PLoS / 23.08.2013

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian D. Glass Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London, United Kingdom Bradley C. Love Department of Cognitive, Perceptual and Brain Sciences, University College London, London, United Kingdom MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We had 72 non-gaming participants play 40 hours of video games over 6 to 8 weeks. We tested them on psychological tests before and after. The participants either played The Sims (a life simulator game), or one of two versions of StarCraft (a real-time strategy game) -- one which had a higher level of complexity. We found that the StarCraft players (especially on the higher complexity version) performed better on specifically the psychological tasks which tested cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adapt to a changing environment by keeping multiple things in mind and switch between tasks effectively. This sort of ability is considered a higher level psychological ability because it requires strategic thinking and creativity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, PLoS, Sleep Disorders / 04.07.2013

Keith Summa MD/PhD Student Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, Illinois, United States of AmericaMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Keith Summa MD/PhD Student Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Chicago, Illinois, United States of America   Disruption of the Circadian Clock in Mice Increases Intestinal Permeability and Promotes Alcohol-Induced Pathology and Inflammation MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main findings of the study were that disruption of circadian rhythms, which we achieved using independent genetic and environmental strategies in mice, leads to impaired function of the intestinal epithelial barrier. This loss of epithelial barrier integrity, which has been associated with numerous diseases, results in "gut leakiness," a phenomenon in which endotoxin from gut bacteria can cross the intestinal wall and enter circulation, promoting inflammation. In particular, using in a disease model of gut-derived endotoxemia and inflammation, alcoholic liver disease, we found the circadian disruption interacted with alcohol, leading to increased gut leakiness, inflammation and liver damage. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, PLoS / 11.03.2013

MedicalResearch.com Author Interview: Dr. Donald K. Milton, MD, Dr.P.H dr_donalk_k_miltonDr. Donald K. Milton, MD, Dr.P.H Professor and Director Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health University of Maryland MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Milton: We found that total viral copies detected by molecular methods were 8.8 times more numerous in fine (≤5 µm) than in coarse (>5 µm) aerosol particles and that the fine particles from cases with the highest total number of viral RNA copies contained infectious virus. Surgical masks reduced the overall number of RNA copies by 3.4 fold. (more…)