Tag Archives: fish

Health: Which grains you eat can impact your risk of getting heart disease earlier

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In one of the first studies to examine the relationship between different types of grain intake and premature coronary artery disease in the Middle East, researchers found a higher intake of refined grain was associated with an increased risk of premature coronary artery disease in an Iranian population, while eating whole grains was associated with reduced risk.

According to the researchers, previous epidemiological studies have reported an association between different types of grain intake with the risk of coronary artery disease. The current study evaluated the association between refined and whole grains consumption and risk of PCAD in an Iranian population.

Premature coronary artery disease (PCAD) refers to atherosclerotic narrowing of coronary arteries in males under 55 years old or in females under 65 years old. It is often asymptomatic early in the course of the disease but may lead to chest pain (angina) and/or heart attack with progressive development of narrowing (stenosis) or plaque rupture of the arterial wall. Risk factors for PCAD include smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes.

Millets-Grains

Millets-Grains

“There are many factors involved in why people may be consuming more refined grains as opposed to whole grains and these cases differ between people, but some of the most important factors to consider include the economy and income, job, education, culture, age and other similar factors,” said Mohammad Amin Khajavi Gaskarei, MD, of the Isfahan Cardiovascular Research Center and Cardiovascular Research Institute at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan, Iran, and the study’s lead author. “A diet that includes consuming a high amount of unhealthy and refined grains can be considered similar to consuming a diet containing a lot of unhealthy sugars and oils.”

Whole grains are defined as containing the entire grain, while refined grains have been milled—ground into flour or meal—to improve shelf life but they lose important nutrients in the process. The 2019 ACC/American Heart Association Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease recommends a diet that emphasizes the intake of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and fish to decrease heart disease risk factors.

The study recruited 2099 individuals with PCAD from hospitals. Participants were given a food frequency questionnaire for dietary assessments to evaluate dietary behaviors and evaluate the association between whole grain and refined grain intake and the risk of PCAD in individuals without a prior diagnoses of heart disease. After adjusting for confounders, a higher intake of refined grains was associated with an increased risk of PCAD, while whole grain intake was inversely related to reduced risk of PCAD.

“As more studies demonstrate an increase in refined grains consumption globally, as well as the impact on overall health, it is important that we find ways to encourage and educate people on the benefits of whole grain consumption,” Khajavi Gaskarei said. “Tactics to consider include teaching improved dietary choices in schools and other public places in simple language the general population can understand, as well as on television programs and by continuing to do high level research that is presented at medical conferences and published in medical journals. Clinicians must also be having these conversations with each other and their patients.”

Meal timing may influence mood vulnerability; Daytime eating benefits mental health

 

Clarifying the chaos of narwhals behavior; what are narwhals, how they help [Details]

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Researchers have used the mathematical equations of chaos theory to analyse the data from long-term monitoring of an electronically tagged narwhal. They have extracted previously undetected diurnal patterns within what initially appeared to be irregular diving and surface resting behavior, using records extending across 83 days.

“While animal-borne ocean sensors continue to advance and collect more data, there is a lack of adequate methods to analyse records of irregular behavior,” says Hokkaido University geophysicist Evgeny A. Podolskiy, first author of the research published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

Podolskiy developed the procedure to find behavioral patterns in seemingly intractable complexity with Mads Peter Heide‐Jørgensen at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.

Narwhals (Monodon monoceros) are relatively small whales found in Arctic seas, famous for their long single tusks and called the unicorns of the sea. They are one of the most endangered Arctic species due to climate change, human activity, and predation by such invasive species as killer whales. The narwhals are notable for undertaking dives to extreme depths of more than 1,800 metres. Their life cycle is tightly coupled with sea ice, which is rapidly declining.

A pod of adult male narwhals, Greenland, September 2019 (Photo: Carsten Egevang; This image may exclusively be used in relation to this press release. The image can not be included in media archives for use apart from the above and not be handed over to third parties, without prior acceptance by the photographer)./CREDIT: Carsten Egevang

Podolskiy and Heide‐Jørgensen combined their expertises in signal processing and biologging to understand the full diversity of behaviors of a satellite-tagged narwhal. Mathematical techniques developed as part of chaos theory can interpret complicated and seemingly chaotic behavior in dynamic systems to reveal states called ‘attractors’, which the systems tend to develop towards. In essence, the approach identifies significant patterns that would otherwise be difficult to detect.

The analysis of the behavior of the electronically tagged narwhal, inspired by Podolskiy’s previous work on turbulence, revealed a daily pattern of activity and how it was affected by changing seasons, features of narwhal behavior that were previously unrecognised. The animal rested nearer to the surface around noon, but when they did dive at that time the dives were very deep. During twilight and at night the dives became more shallow but also more intense, possibly due to hunting for squid, which is known for diurnal vertical migration. It was also found that increased sea ice constrains the narwhal’s surface activity, and is correlated with more intense diving.

“Our approach is relatively simple to implement and can map and label long term data, identifying differences between the behavior of individual animals and different species, and also detecting perturbations in behavior caused by changing influences,” the authors suggest.

The researchers expect that their new method may be especially useful for assessing the challenges to narwhals and other Arctic animals posed by climate change and the loss of sea ice. Such information may prove vital in adopting policies to protect endangered species in the face of natural change and increased human activity.

Related: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010432

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Scientists take a deep dive into how ‘elasmobranchs’ use the ocean depth

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Using sophisticated electronic tags, scientists have assembled a large biologging dataset to garner comparative insights on how sharks, rays, and skates – also known as “elasmobranchs” – use the ocean depths. While some species spend their entire lives in shallow waters close to our shores on the continental shelf, others plunge hundreds of meters or more off the slope waters into the twilight zone, beyond where sunlight penetrates. This new understanding of how elasmobranchs use the ocean will enable policymakers and resource managers the opportunity to examine the threats these animals face, and guide future management and conservation plans.

A study published Aug. 19 in Science Advances, led by Stanford University and ZSL (Zoological Society of London) researchers, is the largest global investigation of where and when a diverse group of elasmobranchs move vertically. A team of 171 researchers from 135 institutions across 25 countries brought together two decades of data from satellite and archival tags that remotely tracked the movements and behaviors of 38 species in oceans across the globe.

“For the first time, we have a standardized, global database that we used to fill important knowledge gaps about the diving behaviors of sharks and rays,” said Samantha Andrzejaczek, co-lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Hopkins Marine Station of Stanford University. “This will enable better understanding of what fisheries interact with elasmobranchs and how to improve management of many of these long-lived animals.”