Health
‘Hidden’ fat could predict Alzheimer’s disease up to 20 years before symptoms, research finds
Excess fat has been linked to many health conditions, even some that impact the brain.
In the latest Alzheimer’s research, hidden fat in certain parts of the body was shown to be an early warning sign of the most common dementia — as much as 20 years prior to symptoms emerging.
The study findings were presented this week at the annual Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) meeting in Chicago.
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“Among different body compartments, higher visceral or hidden belly fat is the most important predictor of whole-brain amyloid and early tau protein accumulation,” lead study author Mahsa Dolatshahi, M.D., post-doctoral research associate at Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at the Washington University School of Medicine, told Fox News Digital.
The researchers studied different kinds of body tissues — including subcutaneous fat, liver fat and thigh fat — but visceral fat was the “most powerful predictor of the obesity-related Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathologies,” Dolatshahi noted.
In the latest Alzheimer’s research, hidden fat in various parts of the body was shown to be an early warning sign of the most common dementia — as long as 20 years prior to symptoms emerging. (iStock)
“The other types of fat did not show any associations with AD pathologies.”
In the study, researchers assessed 80 middle-aged adults (averaging 49 years old) who did not have any cognitive impairment, according to a press release.
“Visceral fat was the most powerful predictor of obesity-related Alzheimer’s pathologies.”
Just over half of the people were categorized as obese.
The average body mass index (BMI) was 32.31, with anything over 30 falling into the obesity category.
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The researchers assessed the potential connection between signs of Alzheimer’s disease and controllable lifestyle factors, including obesity, metabolic health and BMI.
Tests included brain scans, body MRIs, cholesterol panels, and measurements of blood glucose and insulin levels.
Insulin resistance and lower HDL cholesterol were associated with high amyloid in the brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s. (iStock)
Beyond just measuring BMI, the study used MRI technology to look closer at body fat and better determine its relationship to Alzheimer’s, the release noted.
“We investigated the association of BMI, visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, liver fat fraction, thigh fat and muscle, as well as insulin resistance and HDL (good cholesterol), with amyloid and tau deposition in Alzheimer’s disease,” said Dolatshahi.
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An additional finding was that higher insulin resistance and lower HDL were associated with high amyloid in the brain, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s.
“A key implication of our work is that managing Alzheimer’s risk in obesity will need to involve targeting the related metabolic and lipid issues that often arise with higher body fat,” said senior study author Cyrus A. Raji, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of radiology at MIR, in the release.
Beyond just measuring BMI, the study used MRI technology to look closer at body fat and better determine its relationship to Alzheimer’s. (iStock)
In a separate study that is also being presented this week, the same research team investigated how obesity and belly fat can impair blood flow to the brain.
Three out of four Americans are overweight or obese, the researchers noted.
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Meanwhile, approximately 6.9 million Americans, aged 65 and older, have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a number that has been predicted to reach 13 million by 2050.
“The good news is these risk factors can be lowered with a healthy lifestyle and routine exercise.”
Dr. Earnest Lee Murray, a board-certified neurologist at Jackson-Madison County General Hospital in Jackson, Tennessee, was not involved in the study but commented on the results.
“We have known for some time the dangers of visceral fat on various organs of the body, likely from its facilitation of inflammatory changes — and it’s no different in the brain,” he told Fox News Digital.
What stuck out most to Murray was how early in life the changes are noted in the brain.
“The good news is these risk factors can be lowered with a healthy lifestyle and routine exercise,” he said.
The popularity of GLP-1 medications for diabetes and obesity “will most certainly be studied” in this context as well, Murray added.
Making healthy lifestyle changes can help reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s later in life, experts say. (iStock)
“This study also shows the importance of physicians and insurance companies focusing on prevention and the long-term benefits of modifying risk factors at an early age, as opposed to waiting for patients to develop symptoms.”
The study did have some limitations, the researchers acknowledged.
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“One is the cross-sectional design of the study, which does not allow us to understand whether the individuals with excess visceral fat and amyloid and tau pathologies will develop cognitive impairment and symptomatic AD,” Dolatshahi told Fox News Digital.
“Also, the sample size for this study is limited to 80 individuals, and we need more studies to understand the role of different kinds of body adiposity in Alzheimer’s disease using PET scans.”
Health
Scientists May Be Able to Make Grapefruits Compatible With Medications They Currently Interfere With
You may be among the millions of people who have seen a surprisingly specific warning like this on the labels of drugs you take:
Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice while using this medication.
Such warnings are issued for dozens of substances, including docetaxel, a cancer drug; erythromycin, an antibiotic; and some statins, the cholesterol-lowering drugs prescribed to more than a third of American adults over 40.
The problem is a set of molecules, furanocoumarins. High levels of furanocoumarins interfere with human liver enzymes, among other processes. In their presence, medications can build up to unhealthy levels in the body. And grapefruits and some related citrus fruits are full of them.
But there is no such warning for other kinds of citrus, such as mandarins and other oranges. Citrus researchers at the Volcani Center in Israel reported Wednesday in the journal The New Phytologist that, by crossing mandarins and grapefruit, they’ve uncovered genes that produce furanocoumarins in some citrus fruits. It’s a finding that opens the possibility of creating grapefruit that doesn’t require a warning label.
Scientists had worked out the compounds’ structures and pieced together a basic flowchart of how they are made years ago, said Yoram Eyal, a professor at the Volcani Center. But the precise identities of enzymes catalyzing the process — the proteins that snip off a branch here, or add a piece there — remained mysterious. He and his colleagues knew that one way to identify them was to breed citrus high in furanocoumarins with those without. If the offspring of such a cross had varying levels of the substances, it should be possible, by digging into their genetics, to pinpoint the genes for the proteins.
“We were afraid to approach it, because it’s very time-consuming and it takes many years,” he said, noting how involved it can be to grow new trees from seeds and assess their genetics. “But finally, we decided we have to dive in.”
When they examined the offspring of a mandarin and a grapefruit, the researchers saw something remarkable. Fifty percent of the young plants had high levels of furanocourmains, and 50 percent had none. That particular signature meant something very specific, in terms of how the ability to make these substances is inherited.
“We saw there was only one gene that could have controlled it,” said Livnat Goldenberg, a Volcani Center researcher who is the lead author of the new study.
The researchers soon identified the gene controlling the production of furanocoumarins in leaves and fruit, which produces an enzyme called 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase, or 2OGD for short. Mandarins, it turns out, have a mutated form of this gene that keeps the enzyme from functioning properly. This version cropped up in all the mandarin and orange varieties the researchers checked, explaining why they do not cause the same problems as grapefruit in people taking prescription medications. In these plants, furanocoumarin production is paused.
With gene editing technology, it should be possible to alter the gene in grapefruit as well, Dr. Eyal suggests. The team at the Volcani Center is now exploring that project.
Looking at how widespread this mutated version is in mandarins and some other citrus, the scientists speculate that some gene nearby on the genome must play an important role in a highly prized trait. A long-ago citrus breeder, selecting for some unknown quality, must have unwittingly spread this furanocoumarin-busting version of the gene to an ancestor of modern varieties of mandarins and oranges.
All these years later, that person’s work is coming to light, under the gaze of geneticists, who may, someday, put grapefruit back on the menu.
Cases of tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” are on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Caused by the bacteria Francisella tularensis, the disease commonly infects rabbits, hares and rodents. However, it is zoonotic, which means it can spread from animals to humans.
The bacteria is a “tier-1 select agent,” a classification given to agents and toxins that “present the greatest risk of deliberate misuse with significant potential for mass casualties or devastating effects to the economy, critical infrastructure or public confidence, and pose a severe threat to public health and safety,” per the CDC.
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Although tularemia is relatively rare, with only 2,462 diagnoses between 2011 and 2022, cases have risen 56% compared to the prior decade (2001 to 2010), as reported in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Cases of tularemia, also known as “rabbit fever,” are on the rise in the U.S., according to a new report from the CDC. (iStock)
“Increased reporting of probable cases might be associated with an actual increase in human infection, improved tularemia detection or both,” the report states.
Millions of new cases of diabetes and heart disease every year are caused by sugary drinks, according to newly published research.
Tufts University in Boston led the study, which found that about 2.2 million new diagnoses of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease were attributed to sugar-sweetened sodas and juices each year, according to a press release.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine this week.
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The highest rates were found in Colombia, where 48% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary drinks, and in Mexico, where nearly a third of cases were attributed to them.
Meanwhile, in Latin America, more than 24% of new diabetes cases were linked to sugary beverages, and 21% in sub-Saharan Africa, the study found.
About 2.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cases of cardiovascular disease occur each year worldwide due to consuming sugar-sweetened soda and juices, according to the findings of a new study. (iStock)
In South Africa, 27.6% of new diabetes cases and 14.6% of cardiovascular disease cases were attributed to sugary drinks.
Sugary drinks are rapidly digested, causing a spike in blood sugar levels with little nutritional value.
Sugary drinks cause blood sugar to spike because they are “rapidly digested,” the research team said.
When consumed on a long-term basis, these types of beverages, in addition to increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, can also lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, the researchers added.
Men are more likely than women to suffer the consequences of sugary drink consumption, as are younger adults compared to their older counterparts, a new study asserts. (iStock)
Professor Dariush Mozaffarian, the study’s senior author, said in a university press release, “Sugar-sweetened beverages are heavily marketed and sold in low- and middle-income nations.”
He added, “Not only are these communities consuming harmful products, but they are also often less well-equipped to deal with the long-term health consequences.”
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Certain groups are more likely to experience negative health effects from sugary drinks, including men and younger adults, the researchers noted, as news agency SWNS also noted.
New Jersey-based registered dietitian Erin Palinski-Wade, who was not involved in the research, said the findings were to be expected, as diets rich in added sugars are more likely to increase the risk of chronic health conditions, including type 2 diabetes.
When consumed on a long-term basis, these types of beverages can also lead to weight gain and insulin resistance, experts say. (iStock)
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are a major cause of added sugar in the diet and easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness,” she told Fox News Digital.
“The high calorie content and lack of satisfaction due to little protein, fat or fiber in these drinks can lead to excess calorie consumption, which can lead to weight gain — especially gains in visceral fat (belly fat), which has been found to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes,” she went on.
“Sugar-sweetened beverages are easy to overconsume, as they provide little fullness.”
Palinski-Wade pointed out that there were some limitations to the new research.
“This was an observational study, not a causation study, and shows only an association between diets containing sugar-sweetened beverages and diabetes,” she noted.
“It does not prove that those drinks alone trigger an onset of type 2 diabetes.”
What needs to change?
To remedy the issue, the study authors called for a “multi-pronged approach,” including public health campaigns, regulations on advertising and taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages, the release stated.
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“We need urgent, evidence-based interventions to curb consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, before even more lives are shortened by their effects on diabetes and heart disease,” first author Laura Lara-Castor, now at the University of Washington, said in the release.
Approximately 65% of adults in the U.S. consume sugar-sweetened beverages daily. (iStock)
Mexico implemented a sugary drinks tax in 2014, which has shown to be effective in reducing consumption, the researchers stated.
“Much more needs to be done, especially in countries in Latin America and Africa, where consumption is high and the health consequences severe,” wrote Mozaffarian.
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“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
Many different factors are involved in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, Palinski-Wade noted.
“As a species, we need to address sugar-sweetened beverage consumption.”
“However, reducing your intake of sugar-sweetened beverages can go a long way toward improving overall blood sugar regulation and future health.”
The new research was supported by the Gates Foundation, the American Heart Association and Mexico’s National Council for Science and Technology.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers for further comment.
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