Aging, Author Interviews, Frailty, Geriatrics, Nutrition, Protein / 05.11.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: ""Trash Fish" Sustanable Seafood Dinner" by Edsel Little is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0Nuno Mendonça RD, PhD Campus for Ageing and Vitality Newcastle‐upon –Tyne United Kingdom  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Very old adults, those aged 85 and older, are the fastest growing age group in most western societies and are more likely to develop disability. Dietary protein is a sensible candidate because it may slow decreases in muscle mass and functional decline with aging. Although we know that protein intake is, on average, lower in older adults (a mean of 66 grams per day) compared to younger adults (a mean of 91 grams per day), research exploring protein intake and disability progression in very old adults is limited. We found that our participants from North-East England had four different disability trajectories between the ages of 85 and 90: a) a constant very low disability trajectory (difficulty with none or 1 activity of daily living (ADL))  over the 5 years; b) a low disability trajectory (difficulty with 2 ADLs) that steadily progressed to mild disability (5 ADLs); c) a mild disability score (4 ADLs) at 85 that increased to moderate disability (10 ADLs) by age 90; and d) a moderate disability score (9 ADLs) at baseline that progressed to severe disability (14 ADLs) after 5 years. We found that those with higher protein intake, especially those at or above 1 g per kg of body weight per day (70g of protein per day for a 70 kg person), were less likely to belong to a worse disability trajectory. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Red Meat / 31.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “mmmm Meat” by Glen MacLarty is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Jyrki Virtanen, PhD Adjunct professor of nutritional epidemiology Heli Virtanen, MSc University of Eastern Finland Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition Kuopio, Finland  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous studies have found that animal sources of protein may have an adverse impact on the risk of cardiovascular diseases, like myocardial infarct, whereas plant sources of protein have had an opposite impact. In this study we investigated that how protein intake from different dietary sources is associated with developing heart failure in men during the study’s follow-up. During the mean follow-up time of about 22 years, 334 men developed heart failure. The main finding of the study was that higher protein intake was associated with a moderately higher risk of heart failure and the findings were similar with protein from most dietary sources, although the association was stronger with protein from animal sources. Only protein from fish and eggs were not associated with the risk in our study. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Nutrition / 14.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: John C. Price, Ph.D Asst. Professor Chemistry and Biochemistry Brigham Young University Provo, Utah MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Since 1930 it has been known that the rate of biological aging could be modified by the diet.  In mice for example if you let them eat as much as they want they will live almost 3 years.  Providing essentially the same diet but controlling the number of total calories, there is an almost linear increase in lifespan as you restrict calories.  The studies in mice and rats have been repeated hundreds of times since that time.  There have been a lot of somewhat conflictive observations, like increased formation of new mitochondria, and increased autophagy which targets organelles for degradation, during stable reduced calorie intake. This expectation, that a restricted diet with fewer calories available to the animal could support increased protein synthesis and degradation and result in increased lifespan, is what got us interested in studying Calorie Restriction.  So we measured the relative synthesis rates for several hundred proteins in 18 month old calorie restricted mice which were experiencing the benefits of improved health and lifespan.  We found overwhelmingly that the calorie restricted mice had reduced synthesis rates down to as low as 25% of the age matched control group.  This observation has now been independently confirmed by multiple groups. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Protein / 20.09.2014

Lynn L. Moore, DSc, MPH Co-Director, Nutrition and Metabolism Assoc Prof of Medicine Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology Department of Medicine Boston University School of Medicine Boston, MA 02118MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lynn L. Moore, DSc, MPH Co-Director, Nutrition and Metabolism Assoc Prof of Medicine Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology Department of Medicine Boston University School of Medicine Boston, MA 02118 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: Our data were derived from 1,361 adults (aged 30-54 years) enrolled in the Framingham Offspring Study and showed that men and women who consumed higher amounts of protein had lower blood pressures (both systolic and diastolic blood pressures) after four years of follow-up. We then followed them for an average of about 11 years and found that those who consumed the most protein (approximately 103 g/day) had about a 40% lower risk of developing high blood pressure than those consuming about half that amount. These beneficial effects were even more pronounced when higher protein intakes were combined with high fiber intakes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetologia / 08.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Daniela Jakubowicz MD Diabetes Unit. E. Wolfson Medical Center Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Medical Center, IsraelMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Daniela Jakubowicz MD Diabetes Unit. E. Wolfson Medical Center Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University and Tel Aviv Medical  Center, Israel Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Prof. Jakubowicz: In type 2 diabetes there is a deficit of post-meal insulin secretion (from pancreatic beta-cells) that  contributes to an exaggerated elevation in blood glucose. In this study we  found that consumption of whey protein shortly before breakfast augmented  GLP-1 (a gut hormone that stimulates insulin secretion) enhancing insulin response and lowering glucose excursions after breakfast. (more…)