Welcome to the June 2023 issue of Research Extracts. “The Extracts” is designed to keep busy practitioners and savvy consumers up to date on the latest research on diet, nutrients, botanicals, the microbiome, the environment, and lifestyle approaches to good health. Our medical team, which includes NDs, MDs, PhDs, RDs, an MS clinical nutrition, an MS biology, and an LAc, summarizes the essence of several interesting recent studies.

In this issue: (1) Mental Health Moment: benefits of music lessons, (2) sleep duration and metabolic syndrome risk, (3) gut microbiome and diabetes risk, and (4) the microbiome in anorexia.

Mental Health Moment: Music Lessons Enhance Emotional State

Playing a musical instrument involves auditory, tactile, and visual cues that benefit sensory and motor neural processing. Music also emotes and has been studied to impact emotion processing and social interactions. The effects of listening to music on mood have been thoroughly studied and found to reduce stress and other common negative emotions. This study took it one step further to explore music training rather than just listening.

The 31 participants in this study were non-musicians randomly assigned to a music training group, a music listening group, or a control group who received no music input. Piano lessons were provided to the training group for an hour every week over the 11-week study period. The listening group listened to one hour of piano music the training group was practicing. Participants were assessed through emotion recognition tasks, cognitive and audio-visual tasks, and several questionnaires.

At the conclusion of the study, the music training group had improved audio-visual synchronicity, meaning they recognized the audio and visual stimuli quicker compared to the other groups. The study also looked at the emotional states of the participants and found the music training group had significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and perceived stress at the end of the study compared to the beginning.

Contributed by Carly Duffy, MPH, RD

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Too Much or Too Little Sleep Contributes to Metabolic Syndrome

Although ample evidence shows that not getting enough sleep can negatively impact our health, apparently getting too much sleep can be just as detrimental. A recent study examined the impact of both inadequate and excessive sleep on postmenopausal women and their corresponding risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS). MetS is characterized by dysregulation of at least three of the following cardiometabolic markers: elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, and abdominal obesity measured by waist circumference.

Previously collected data from 5,159 postmenopausal women (ages 50-79) in the Women’s Health Initiative was analyzed. The study looked at sleep duration and insomnia information from women with no previous history of diabetes. The analysis found that consistently sleeping less than six hours or more than nine hours per night was associated with an increased risk of developing MetS, and elevated triglycerides, in particular. Sleeping less than six hours nightly was also associated with elevated blood pressure, while sleeping more than nine hours nightly was associated with larger than normal waist circumference.

Apparently, the connection between sleep and cardiometabolic health is akin to a “Goldilocks” effect in which too much or too little sleep can both be problematic, particularly for postmenopausal women.

Note: If you’re wondering if abnormal cortisol or melatonin circadian rhythms might be a cause, then take Thorne’s Sleep Test.

Carina Toledo, MS Clinical Nutrition, MHI

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Gut Microbiome Vitamin Production and Diabetes Risk

The human body can synthesize some vitamins – like vitamin D from sunlight – while others, like B vitamins and vitamin K, are mainly obtained from food. However, the bacteria that live in our intestines also contribute to production of several of these vitamins, which might be one way the gut microbiome plays a role in both prevention and development of disease.

Data from a population-based cohort study of adults in the Netherlands was examined to explore the relationship between gut microbiome vitamin production and diabetes risk. Study data included metagenomic sequencing of the gut microbiome, dietary information, smoking factors, drug usage, and biomarkers related to type 2 diabetes, including blood glucose, insulin, hemoglobin A1c, and HOMA-IR, a calculated measure of insulin resistance.

Biosynthesis of B vitamins by the gut microbiome was both positively and negatively associated with diabetes risk, including relationships to blood lipids, glucose, insulin, and HOMA-IR. In particular, the vitamin B1 pathway was associated with increased diabetes risk, possibly due to increased inflammatory biochemicals triggered by B1-producing bacteria. Conversely, the vitamin B2 production pathway was associated with reduced inflammation and diabetes risk. Higher fruit and fiber intake led to an increased diversity in the gut microbiome that supported B2 biosynthesis and lowered inflammatory biochemicals triggered by B1-producing bacteria. The authors suggested the strategy of increasing fruit consumption to help balance the gut microbiome and modulate microbiome-related diabetes risk.

Note: What’s in your gut? Take Thorne’s Gut Health Test, using an easy at-home collection wipe, and find out.

Contributed by Jennifer L. Greer, ND, MEd

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Anorexia and the Microbiome

If it seems all health roads lead to the microbiome, then that’s because a plethora of research continues to emerge linking the health of the microbiome (particularly the gut microbiome) to the health of other areas of the body. So, it should come as no surprise to learn that eating disorders, such as anorexia, appear to be linked to disruptions in the gut microbiome.

Anorexia nervosa affects about one percent of the U.S. population – 95 percent of whom are women. In this study, shotgun metagenomics examined stool samples of 77 anorexic women compared to 70 healthy women; serum metabolites were also measured.

Findings from the study include:

  • Altered bacterial taxa in anorexic subjects compared to healthy participants
  • The anorexic women had depleted species associated with a healthy gut, including Roseburia intestinalis and Roseburia inulinivorans
  • Clostridium spp was associated with higher eating disorder scores
  • Virome (viral microbiome) in anorexia differs from healthy subjects with fewer bacterial-viral interactions in the anorexic group
  • More bacterial metabolites associated with neurotransmitter/precursor degradation – dopamine, tryptophan, and glutamate – in the anorexic group
  • Greater numbers of serum metabolites associated with decreased food intake in the anorexia subjects
  • An animal study using fecal transplants from anorexic mice to germ-free mice supports the theory that the altered microbiome in anorexia is a cause rather than an effect. 

For more details on the microbiome variables in anorexia nervosa, click on the full text article link below.

Note: If you want details about your own gut microbiome, then consider Thorne’s Gut Health Test, which provides a detailed analysis and a personalized plan that targets your GI discomfort to optimize wellness. 

Contributed by Kathi Head, ND

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