Health
Lower-Income Americans at Higher Risk of Death From Excess Salt
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April 2, 2024 – Eating food with high amounts of salt has long been linked to a greater risk of high blood pressure and heart disease. But much of the research on salt’s effects have been with middle- and upper-income populations.
A study says large portion of low-income African Americans and White Americans exceed the current recommended sodium intake level. So why is this population getting too much salt?
“In this marginalized group, it is almost always consistent with food access,” said Lena Beal, a registered dietitian nutritionist and a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Lower access to healthier food involves few options outside of convenience foods, a lack of education about healthier food choices, and problems being able to afford quality food, she said
Salt is a necessary nutrient, but a diet with too much of this good thing is linked to death from heart disease.
A large portion of low-income African Americans and White Americas exceeded the current recommended sodium intake level in the new study, “which may have contributed to their high cardiovascular disease mortality rate,” said senior author Xiao-Ou Shu, MD, PhD, a researcher in the Department of Medicine, Division of Epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Cardiovascular disease is a term for problems with your heart and blood vessels.
About 80% of the 65,000 people in the study got more than the daily recommended amount of salt (or sodium) in their diet. The federal government recommends 2,300 milligrams or less per day. In contrast, Black Americans consumed an average of 4,512 milligrams of sodium in their diet per day, while low-income White Americans consumed an average of 4,041 milligrams daily.
Overall, having too much sodium in their diet was linked about 10% to 30% of cardiovascular disease deaths in the study, which was published online March 26 in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Barriers to Healthier Foods
“It’s a solid study. We see this often in our everyday practice, so it’s good to have a study that supports it,” said Beal, who was not involved in the research.
“We have our urban food deserts in Atlanta, where there’s no grocery store within walking distance or one easily accessible using public transit, so people end up shopping at the proverbial corner store,” said Beal, a cardiac dietitian at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.
“The barriers for that population are very real and palpable when you’re dealing with them every single day,” she said.
According to the city of Atlanta, just 52% of city residents lived within a half-mile of fresh food in 2015, a figure that increased to 75% by 2020. The city has set a goal of upping that to 85% by 2025.
Moving forward, Beal would like to see more action. “We have got to put some muscle time, energy, research dollars, and resources into these communities to increase their access to wholesome, healthful choices at affordable prices.”
Excess Salt, Excess Death Risk
Shu and colleagues examined patients a median of 14 years after they entered the Southern Community Cohort Study. People ages 40 to 79 were enrolled in the study between 2002 and 2009, mostly from health centers serving underserved Americans in one of 12 Southern states. They were 72% Black and 28% White, and about 83% lived in households with an annual income below $25,000.
After controlling for other things that can increase heart disease risk, the researchers found that every 1,000-milligram increase in salt over the recommended 2,300 milligrams per day was tied to a greater risk of death.
For example, among Black patients, this added a 3% increased risk of dying from any reason, 7% higher risk from total cardiovascular disease, and an 8% higher chance of dying from congestive heart disease. Among White patients, the risks were even greater – an added 8% likelihood of dying from total cardiovascular disease and a 13% higher risk of death from congestive heart disease. This group also was 55% more likely to die from heart failure.
And the issue is not just among Americans with lower socioeconomic status. Americans overall consume high levels of dietary salt – an average of 3,400 milligrams a day.
Myths and Potential Solutions
People have multiple misperceptions about excess salt, Beal said. On the medical side, they tend to misunderstand “the strong correlation with heart disease, and on the diet side, people misunderstand how simple it is to address.”
Avoiding excess salt does not mean eating food with no taste. Rather than sprinkling on the salt, add herbs and spices, Beal suggested. For example, instead of eating rice that comes in a box with a seasoning packet that you boil and serve, choose rice in a bag that you boil and season yourself.
Shu said that “a special program aiming to educate the health risk of high sodium intake and promote healthy diet among these vulnerable populations should be a public health priority.”
Beal encourages people to change their lifestyle in two ways, even if they are financially restrained. “It’s going to be how much or how often you do something – the amount or the frequency.”
The “how much” means portion control. The “how often” means the number of times you eat prepackaged products, convenience foods, or processed foods. Restaurant food can include unknown amounts of salt, too, especially fast food.
Choose to buy 100% fruit drinks instead of dark sodas, Beal suggested. Opt for smaller bottles – buy a drink that is 8 ounces instead of 20 ounces. Buy ramen noodles and drain the liquid off before eating. In addition, limit condiments and sauces like barbecue sauce, ketchup, and mayonnaise, which “have all the excess sodium and sugar.”
Study Limitations and Strengths
Shu and colleagues calculated salt in the diet based on what people reported at one time, when they entered the Southern Community Cohort Study. So any changes over time could not be considered. Also, self-reporting salt in the diet might be less accurate than testing blood or urine samples.
In terms of strengths, Beal cited the large sample size and the focus on underserved communities.
Asked about next steps, Shu said their plans include looking into how genes affect the way sodium impacts health.
Health
Walmart Is Selling a $300 Power Tower for Just $128, and Shoppers Say It's 'Surprisingly Sturdy'
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When building a home gym, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the equipment options, especially when you’re working with limited space and a tight budget. But when you focus on versatile gear and hunt for deals, creating a useful setup is easily doable. Thankfully, Walmart has been slashing prices on a ton of fitness equipment, including its bestselling adjustable dumbbells and even a complete home gym system. Now, it’s reduced the price of a popular power tower by over $170, and it even ships for free.
The Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower is on sale for $128, a 57% discount on its normal price of $300. This incredibly versatile workout station has earned nearly 250 five-star ratings from Walmart shoppers who’ve praised its “strong and sturdy” build and “quality fit and finish,” and it’s currently one of the top 5 bestselling models on the site.
Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower, $128 (was $300) at Walmart
Don’t let the brand’s bizarre name fool you—this power tower is a well-made piece of gym equipment. It features steel construction and is rated to hold up to 480 pounds (the tower itself weighs 66 pounds). A nearly 42-inch H-shaped base gives it excellent stability, so it won’t wobble or shake when you’re exercising, and anti-slip feet on the bottom keep it securely planted on the floor. It’s also adjustable (from 71.4 inches to 94 inches) to accommodate users of varying heights. And, once it’s set up, you can use it for a huge range of exercises, including dips, pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, vertical leg raises, knee raises, and more.
According to Walmart reviewers, the Pooboo Body Champ stands out for its solid build and usefulness. “It’s a surprisingly sturdy piece of equipment,” a shopper said. “Everything about this fitness tower is perfect. I originally purchased this with the intention of only doing pull-ups on it, but after quickly assembling the power tower, I came to realize just how versatile it is. It has cushions for knee and leg raises, it’s sturdy, and the perfect width for dips.” Another shopper agreed, saying, “This was a much-needed addition to my home gym.”
“This thing is amazing and worth every penny,” said another, who added that it’s “easy to install and can hold a lot of weight.”
At just $128, this Pooboo power tower is a screaming deal, and it’s sure to get lots of use during your workouts. But this discount won’t last long, so grab one today before the price pumps back up.
Health
Alzheimer’s Drug May Save Lives Through ‘Suspended Animation’
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By Lindsay Brownell | Wyss Institute Communications | Harvard Gazette
Could buy patients more time to survive critical injuries and diseases, even when disaster strikes far from a hospital
Donepezil, an FDA-approved drug to treat Alzheimer’s, has the potential to be repurposed for use in emergency situations to prevent irreversible organ injury, according to researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
Using Donepezil (DPN), researchers report that they were able to put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor.
“Cooling a patient’s body down to slow its metabolic processes has long been used in medical settings to reduce injuries and long-term problems from severe conditions, but it can only currently be done in a well-resourced hospital,” said co-author Michael Super, director of immuno-materials at the Wyss Institute. “Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.”
This research, published Thursday in ACS Nano, was supported as part of the DARPA Biostasis Program, which funds projects that aim to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment, often referred to as “the Golden Hour,” following traumatic injury or acute infection. The Wyss Institute has been a participant in the Biostasis Program since 2018, and has achieved several important milestones over the last few years.
Using a combination of predictive machine learning algorithms and animal models, the Wyss’ Biostasis team previously identified and tested existing drug compounds that had the potential to put living tissues into a state of suspended animation. Their first successful candidate, SNC80, significantly reduced oxygen consumption (a proxy for metabolism) in both a beating pig heart and in human organ chips, but is known to cause seizures when injected systemically.
In the new study, they once again turned to their algorithm to identify other compounds whose structures are similar to SNC80. Their top candidate was DNP, which has been approved since 1996 to treat Alzheimer’s.
Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.
–Michael Super
“Interestingly, clinical overdoses of DNP in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have been associated with drowsiness and a reduced heart rate — symptoms that are torpor-like. However, this is the first study, to our knowledge, that focuses on leveraging those effects as the main clinical response, and not as side effects,” said the study’s first author, María Plaza Oliver, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute when the work was conducted.
The team used X. laevis tadpoles to evaluate DNP’s effects on a whole living organism, and found that it successfully induced a torpor-like state that could be reversed when the drug was removed. The drug, however, did seem to cause some toxicity, and accumulated in all of the animals’ tissues. To solve that problem, the researchers encapsulated DNP inside lipid nanocarriers, and found that this both reduced toxicity and caused the drug to accumulate in the animals’ brain tissues. This is a promising result, as the central nervous system is known to mediate hibernation and torpor in other animals as well.
Although DNP has been shown to protect neurons from metabolic stress in models of Alzheimer’s disease, the team cautions that more work is needed to understand exactly how it causes torpor, as well as scale up production of the encapsulated DNP for use in larger animals and, potentially, humans.
“Donepezil has been used worldwide by patients for decades, so its properties and manufacturing methods are well-established. Lipid nanocarriers similar to the ones we used are also now approved for clinical use in other applications. This study demonstrates that an encapsulated version of the drug could potentially be used in the future to buy patients critical time to survive devastating injuries and diseases, and it could be easily formulated and produced at scale on a much shorter time scale than a new drug,” said senior author Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
This research was supported by DARPA under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-19-2-0027, the Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha (NextGeneration EU UNI/551/2021).
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This story is reprinted with permission from The Harvard Gazette.
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Health
Can Stuff in Rosemary Extract Fight Cocaine Addiction?
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Researchers have discovered that an antioxidant found in rosemary extract can reduce intakes of cocaine by moderating the brain’s reward response, offering a new therapeutic target for treating addiction.
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The study in the journal Neuron describes researchers’ focus on a region of the brain called the globus pallidus externus, which acts as a gatekeeper that regulates how we react to cocaine.
They discovered that within the GPe, parvalbumin-positive neurons are crucial in controlling the response to cocaine by changing the activity neurons releasing the pleasure molecule dopamine.
“There are currently no effective therapeutics for dependence on psychostimulants such as cocaine, which, along with opioids, represent a substantial health burden,” says corresponding author Kevin Beier, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of California, Irvine.
“Our study deepens our understanding of the basic brain mechanisms that increase vulnerability to substance use disorder-related outcomes and provides a foundation for the development of new interventions.”
Findings in mice revealed that globus pallidus externus parvalbumin-positive cells, which indirectly influence the release of dopamine, become more excitable after being exposed to cocaine. This caused a drop in the expression of certain proteins that encode membrane channels that usually help keep the globus pallidus cell activity in check. The researchers found that carnosic acid, an isolate of rosemary extract, selectively binds to the affected channels, providing an avenue to reduce response to the drug in a relatively specific fashion.
“Only a subset of individuals are vulnerable to developing a substance use disorder, but we cannot yet identify who they are. If globus pallidus cell activity can effectively predict response to cocaine, it could be used to measure likely responses and thus serve as a biomarker for the most vulnerable,” Beier says. “Furthermore, it’s possible that carnosic acid could be given to those at high risk to reduce the response to cocaine.”
The next steps in this research include thoroughly assessing negative side effects of carnosic acid and determining the ideal dosage and timing. The team is also interested in testing its efficacy in reducing the desire for other drugs and in developing more potent and targeted variants.
Scientists from the University of West Virginia and the University of Colorado participated in the study.
Support for this work came from the National Institutes of Health, One Mind, the Alzheimer’s Association, New Vision Research, BrightFocus Foundation, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Source: UC Irvine
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Previously Published on futurity.org with Creative Commons License
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