SHR

Is there a way to reverse the brain damage done by concussion and TBI within hours after the occurrence? The science on this protein peptide sure looks like there is. So should NFL players be using this? And could this save the NFL from millions of dollars of liability? While we can all pontificate about the plight of young football players in middle school and high school and the willingness of parents to allow their children to suffer a potential concussion and TBI, when it comes to consenting adults the issues are quite different. Pro football players must weigh the risk versus reward differently. When the potential to secure a multimillion dollar contract plays into the scenario consenting adults will always choose a high-risk potential to achieve greater progress and fame in their chosen sport. With the potential for the first blood test that will be able to quickly identify if...

The recommended daily allowances (RDAs) for vitamins and minerals were first established by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1943. There have since been small changes to incorporate emerging scientific knowledge, but on the whole they have remained relatively constant. Perhaps the most notable change came in 2010, when the IOM tripled their recommendation for vitamin D from 200 to 600 IU daily for all people aged 1-70 years. By definition, an RDA for a nutrient is set at an intake level whereby it satisfies the requirement for 97.5% of the population. Statistically, this is done by finding the amount that is adequate for half the population (called the estimated average requirement, or EAR) and having the RDA be 2 standard deviations above it. According the IOM, a satisfactory requirement achieves serum vitamin D (25OHD) levels of at least 20 ng/mL. Both the target 25OHD levels and the RDA have come...

An estimated one billion people worldwide are vitamin D deficient or insufficient, and analysis of the NHANES 2005-2006 data suggests that 41.6% of Americans are deficient. There are many causes for low serum vitamin D (25OHD) levels, and one may be obesity. Research has documented an inverse association between measures of body fatness and serum vitamin D levels (25OHD) in adults and children. Being associations, we are precluded from drawing firm conclusions. Which comes first, obesity or vitamin D deficiency? Thanks to the work of Pannu et al, we may have an answer. These researchers conducted a meta-regression analysis of 23 randomized controlled trials in which overweight and obese participants underwent a weight loss intervention without vitamin D supplementation. As such, the 2085 participants were part of a vitamin D study but assigned to the control group where vitamin D supplements were not provided. For every 10 kg that the participants...

Sarcopenia has a number of underlying mechanisms, but the primary nutrition-related one is inadequate protein intake. Although it is becoming increasingly recognized that the RDA of 0.8 g/kg is not sufficient, with other authoritative bodies such as the PROT-AGE Study Group giving recommendations of 1.0 to 1.5 g/kg, there is a distinct lack of focus on how that protein is distributed throughout the day. As pointed out by the PROT-AGE study group, older individuals appear to have a higher per-meal protein threshold to promote anabolism (i.e., 25 to 30 g protein per meal containing about 2.5 to 2.8 g leucine). Additionally, although there appears to be no additional benefit of consuming more than 30 g of protein on muscle protein synthesis, evidence suggests that consuming more protein can further reduce protein breakdown so that net protein balance improves. The average protein intake of elderly individuals is about 80 grams per day,...

Diet and telomeres Telomeres are long stretches of a repeating nucleotide sequence (TTAGGG) located at the end of chromosomes that contribute to genome stability. They are very sensitive to cellular replication and become shorter each and every time DNA is replicated. Whether telomere length is a cause or consequence of biological aging is a matter of dispute, but there is little argument that it is a primary hallmark of aging. It is well-known that lifestyle factors influence longevity and the rate of aging, leading researchers from Spain to review the specific effects of diet on telomere length. Unfortunately, most studies relating nutritional data to telomere length are cross-sectional, thus presenting difficulties towards considering cause-effect relationships. Nonetheless, of the data that is available, nutrients and foods known to be beneficial or harmful for other age-related chronic diseases appear to have similar effects on telomere length. Generally speaking, caloric restriction appears to influence...