Showing posts with label paying it forward. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paying it forward. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
The effect of probiotic supplements on cognitive outcomes and neuroplasticity in elderly ischemic stroke survivors
Is your doctor competent enough to get the dietician to incorporate these into the diet protocol at the hospital and your take home diet protocol ? NO? So, your doctor failed at that task! What are YOU going to do about that incompetence? Let it pass? Or pay it forward and get someone competent in the hospital for the next stroke survivor?
The effect of probiotic supplements on cognitive outcomes and neuroplasticity in elderly ischemic stroke survivors
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Abstract
Background:
This retrospective cohort study investigates the effects of probiotic supplementation on the nutritional, cognitive, and motor functions of elderly survivors recovering from ischemic stroke. Given the high prevalence of nutritional deficits and cognitive impairments in this population, exploring adjunct therapies such as probiotics could provide improved outcomes.
Methods:
The study included 223 elderly ischemic stroke survivors treated between March 2021 and February 2024, divided into two groups based on treatment modalities: the Conventional Group (n = 117) receiving standard enteral nutrition, and the Supplement Group (n = 106) receiving similar nutrition plus probiotics. Data collected included NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS), nutritional indicators, cognitive assessments (MMSE, HDS, CDR, SES), and motor evaluations (STREAM, mRS, MBI).
Results:
Baseline comparisons showed no significant differences between groups. Post-treatment outcomes demonstrated significant improvements in the Supplement Group across several measures. Neurotrophic and nutritional parameters, including BDNF, hemoglobin, albumin, and prealbumin levels, significantly increased (P ≤ 0.011). Cognitive function also improved, with higher MMSE and HDS scores and reduced CDR scores (P < 0.003). Motor function, evaluated by STREAM, showed enhanced upper and lower limb mobility and basic activities (P ≤0.014). Further, participants in the Supplement Group experienced better functional recovery with decreased mRS scores and increased MBI scores (P < 0.004). The incidence of gastrointestinal adverse events was significantly reduced in the Supplement Group (P < 0.001), and correlation analysis underscored positive associations between probiotics and improved outcomes (P ≤0.003).
Conclusion: Probiotic supplementation as part of nutritional therapy significantly enhances nutritional, cognitive, and motor function recovery in elderly ischemic stroke survivors, while also reducing gastrointestinal adverse events. These findings suggest that incorporating probiotics into recovery protocols post-stroke may facilitate better health outcomes and provide a well-tolerated therapeutic adjunct.
Sunday, May 31, 2026
Scientists just debunked every myth about seed oils—here's what they found
Is your doctor competent enough to get the dietician to incorporate these into the diet protocol at the hospital and your take home diet protocol ? NO? So, your doctor failed at that task! What are YOU going to do about that incompetence? Let it pass? Or pay it forward and get someone competent in the hospital for the next stroke survivor?
Scientists just debunked every myth about seed oils—here's what they found
They combed through 500 studies, and the science suggests seed oils are a healthy pantry staple.
Reviewed by Dietitian Jessica Ball, M.S., RD
Credit: Design elements: Getty Images. EatingWell design.© Design elements: Getty Images. EatingWell design.
Key Points
- Research shows seed oils are safe and may reduce heart disease risk when replacing saturated fats.
- Claims linking seed oils to inflammation lack evidence; linoleic acid doesn’t increase inflammatory markers.
- Cooking with seed oils in moderation is healthy; focus on whole foods and limit ultra-processed snacks.
If you’ve been scrolling wellness content lately, you’ve probably seen someone telling you to throw out your canola oil. Seed oils (including canola, corn, cottonseed, grapeseed, peanut, rice bran, safflower, sesame, soybean and sunflower) have become one of the internet’s most talked-about nutrition targets.
Seed oil critics argue that they drive inflammation, damage your heart and turn toxic when heated. A recently published review in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition examined the human evidence behind those claims and found it largely doesn't hold up. Let’s break down what the researchers found.
How Was the Review Conducted?
This was a scoping narrative review, meaning the researchers gathered and interpreted a broad range of existing human research rather than conducting a new experiment.
The team of researchers reviewed studies on seed oils and linoleic acid across multiple health outcomes: cardiovascular disease, inflammation, LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol oxidation, cancer, liver fat, body weight, type 2 diabetes and oil processing. The researchers examined randomized controlled trials, prospective cohort studies, biomarker studies and Mendelian randomization analyses.
What Did the Review Find?
Inflammation
The findings were reassuring across the board. One of the more common claims about seed oils is that their linoleic acid content drives inflammation in the body—but researchers say the data doesn’t support that.
“The claim largely stems from the idea that the omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, in seed oils may convert into a potentially inflammatory fat called arachidonic acid,” the review lead author Matthew Nagra, ND, explains. “However, when researchers actually feed people seed oils and measure what happens, almost none of that conversion occurs and inflammatory markers don't increase."
A 2012 systematic review of 15 randomized controlled trials found virtually no evidence that adding linoleic acid to the diet increases inflammatory markers in healthy adults. A follow-up meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials found no significant changes in 11 different inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein, when linoleic acid intake increased.
The Omega-6-to-Omega-3 Ratio
You might have heard people claim that our modern diets contain too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 fats (and that seed oils are largely to blame). The review pushes back on this framing, noting that this ratio isn’t a very reliable measure of diet quality.
The better move is to focus on eating more omega-3-rich foods like fatty fish, walnuts and flaxseed, rather than cutting out omega-6-rich fats such as canola or soybean oil.
Heart Health
For cardiovascular health, the findings consistently supported replacing saturated fats with polyunsaturated fats (the type found in seed oils) to reduce cardiovascular risk. One American Heart Association analysis of trials that swapped saturated fat for polyunsaturated fat found a 29% lower risk of coronary heart disease. Longer-term population studies have also linked higher linoleic acid intake with lower rates of death from heart disease and all causes.
Heating and Processing
The review also tackled concerns about heating oils and oil processing. Repeatedly overheating any oil at very high temperatures can degrade it, but this isn’t something most home cooks need to worry about.
Many people also flag safety concerns with hexane, which is a solvent sometimes used during oil extraction. The review notes how residual hexane levels in commercially available oils are well below conservative regulatory limits. In fact, one cited calculation estimated you would need to consume about 4,900 grams of seed oil daily (about 22 cups) to exceed a conservative daily exposure limit.
Other Findings
When it comes to body weight, seed oils don’t appear to increase hunger, reduce energy expenditure or cause weight gain compared to other fats.
On liver health, the review actually found the opposite of what many seed oil critics claim: Replacing saturated fats with linoleic-acid-rich oils may help reduce liver fat, rather than promote it. Finally, for type 2 diabetes, controlled feeding studies generally show neutral to beneficial effects of polyunsaturated fats (found in seed oils) on glucose and insulin markers.
How Does This Apply to Real Life?
If you’ve been worried about seed oils, the evidence here is largely reassuring. Unless you have an allergy, there’s no strong reason to completely avoid cooking with canola, soybean or other common seed oils. “Seed oils can be part of a healthy diet, with the highest quality research suggesting they may reduce heart disease risk compared to saturated fat sources like butter or beef tallow,” Nagra says.
Saturated fats don’t need to be entirely off-limits, but making oils rich in unsaturated fats your go-to cooking fat can be a beneficial move for your health. Here are a few ways to put that into practice:
- Use canola or a neutral vegetable oil instead of butter when sautéing vegetables.
- Make a homemade vinaigrette with a plant-based oil instead of using a creamy dressing higher in saturated fat.
- If a recipe calls for a neutral oil in baking, sunflower, canola or soybean oil works well.
- Keep enjoying olive oil and avocado oil, as they remain heart-healthy choices too.
It’s also worth noting that chips, packaged desserts, fast-food fries and many ultra-processed snacks may use seed oils, but their health effects aren’t determined by the oil alone. Those foods can often be high in refined carbohydrates, sodium, added sugars and calories while being low in fiber, protein and micronutrients. The review points out how the potential downsides of low-nutrient packaged foods shouldn’t automatically be attributed to the seed oils they contain.
Our Expert Take
The current body of research suggests seed oils aren’t the health threat they’ve been made out to be online. From inflammation to heart health, the human evidence consistently points to seed oils being safe and, in many cases, beneficial for our health. That said, this isn’t a green light for every food that contains seed oils. Fried foods and ultra-processed snacks are still worth limiting for reasons beyond the oil itself. Try to build your plate around vegetables, fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, legumes and nuts—and feel confident cooking with seed oils in moderation.
Read the original article on EatingWell
Inflammation
The findings were reassuring across the board. One of the more common claims about seed oils is that their linoleic acid content drives inflammation in the body—but researchers say the data doesn’t support that.
“The claim largely stems from the idea that the omega-6 fatty acid, linoleic acid, in seed oils may convert into a potentially inflammatory fat called arachidonic acid,” the review lead author Matthew Nagra, ND, explains. “However, when researchers actually feed people seed oils and measure what happens, almost none of that conversion occurs and inflammatory markers don't increase."
A 2012 systematic review of 15 randomized controlled trials found virtually no evidence that adding linoleic acid to the diet increases inflammatory markers in healthy adults. A follow-up meta-analysis of 30 randomized trials found no significant changes in 11 different inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein, when linoleic acid intake increased.
The Omega-6-to-Omega-3 Ratio
You might have heard people claim that our modern diets contain too much omega-6 relative to omega-3 fats (and that seed oils are largely to blame). The review pushes back on this framing, noting that this ratio isn’t a very reliable measure of diet quality.
Friday, May 29, 2026
Ginger Supplementation Improves Inflammation, Metabolic Health, and Weight Control
Is your doctor competent enough to get the dietician to incorporate these into the diet protocol at the hospital and your take home diet protocol ? NO? So, your doctor failed at that task! What are YOU going to do about that incompetence? Let it pass? Or pay it forward and get someone competent in the hospital for the next stroke survivor?
Ginger Supplementation Improves Inflammation, Metabolic Health, and Weight Control
Wednesday, May 27, 2026
The Bare Minimum You Need to Do to Add a Year to Your Life
Is your doctor competent enough to get the dietician to incorporate these into the diet protocol at the hospital and your take home diet protocol ? NO? So, your doctor failed at that task! What are YOU going to do about that incompetence? Let it pass? Or pay it forward and get someone competent in the hospital for the next stroke survivor?
Did your doctor also fail at getting you recovered enough to do these exercise amounts?
The Bare Minimum You Need to Do to Add a Year to Your Life
Sleeping, eating, and exercise are crucial to health — and improvements in any of those categories can have big impacts. Now we’re learning that minimal changes to all three can improve health better than focusing on just one area alone.
That’s the takeaway from new work from Australian researchers that suggests strong synergistic effects. The research is among the first to calculate the effects of lifestyle changes in combination. Findings suggest that adding just 5 minutes of sleep, 2 minutes of moderate activity, and half a serving of vegetables a day can add a full year to your life.
“The central clinical message is that modest combined changes across three behaviors may matter more than trying to overhaul one behavior in isolation,” said Emmanuel Stamatakis, PhD, a professor of physical activity and population health at the University of Sydney and Monash University in Australia.
In 2025, Stamatakis gained notice with a Nature Communications paper that showed each dose of 60 seconds of daily vigorous exercise could add years to lifespan and reduce the risk for cardiometabolic disease and cancer.
Now, drawing from UK Biobank data, his team’s latest findings show a synergistic effect that “argues against an all-or-nothing approach,” Stamatakis said. “If a patient is struggling to make a large change in one area, it may still be worthwhile to pursue smaller gains across several domains at once.”
The Bare Minimum for Longer Life
The researchers started from a low baseline, creating a composite score for diet, physical activity, and sleep for study participants in the fifth percentile. These people slept about 5.5 hours a night, logged 7.3 minutes of daily moderate activity, and received a diet quality score of 36 out of 100. From there, the researchers set out to find the bare minimum improvements needed to improve lifespan and healthspan.
Here are some conclusions, from the paper published in eClinicalMedicine:
- The minimum: People who added 5 minutes of sleep, 2 minutes of at least moderate activity, and a small diet change such as a half serving of vegetables daily lived 1 year longer than those with the lowest baseline.
- The optimum: Getting 7.2-8 hours of sleep, 43 minutes of moderate activity, and a high-quality diet (score, 57.5-72.5 out of 100) was linked to more than 9 years of additional healthspan and lifespan.
- The synergy: The math shows that these changes multiply each other’s powers. For example, if you rely on sleep alone to add a year to your life, you need an extra 25 minutes a night. But if you combine it with 2 minutes of activity and half a serving of veggies, you need only 5 minutes of additional sleep to get that same extra year.
“What stood out most was how small the estimated combined changes were for a meaningful signal,” Stamatakis said. “We are used to lifestyle advice sounding large, difficult, and sometimes discouraging. Seeing that a few extra minutes of sleep, a couple of minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity, and a modest diet improvement were associated with an extra year of lifespan was striking.”
“Equally striking was that the combination mattered so much,” he said. “Scientifically, that reinforces the idea that everyday behaviors interact in the real world, and practically it suggests a more hopeful, less overwhelming message for patients and clinicians.”
The researchers published a separate analysis in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology that showed similarly small synergistic changes in sleep, activity, and diet lowered the risk for major cardiovascular events.
Call It ‘Progress Over Perfection’
That mindset, plus the flexibility of making several small changes, can be important, said Meagan L. Grega, MD, a lifestyle and family medicine physician in Easton, Pennsylvania, and chief medical officer of the Kellyn Foundation, a healthy neighborhood nonprofit initiative that she co-founded. She serves on the governing board of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and wasn’t involved in the study.
Increased moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, is the strongest driver of improvement in lifespan and healthspan, she said, noting dramatic lifespan gains for each 5 minutes daily. Adding improvements in sleep and nutrition could achieve similar benefits with lower amounts of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity — “a more flexible and attainable path for many patients.”
To coach your patients toward small changes, start by asking, “What matters most to you?” Grega suggests. It could be strength and vitality to stay active with the family, or protecting cognitive health. Choosing the behavior gives the patient autonomy and helps them access their internal motivation.
From there, examine barriers and strategies, Grega said. Improving sleep might mean “creating a consistent wind-down routine or setting a reminder to transition toward bedtime,” she said. “Reviewing a typical day together can uncover opportunities for brief ‘exercise snacks,’ or short bursts of movement woven into existing routines.”
For diet, take a cue from the recent study and suggest adding half a serving of vegetables a day. That’s about one medium carrot, half a bell pepper, or 4 ounces of vegetable juice.
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