SuppVersity Science Round-Up Seconds: Topical Stevia Ointment and Oral Stevia Both Speed Up Wound Healing & Fight Bacteria. + Kinesio Taping, Exercise vs. Parkinson's and Non-Permanent Infertility Due to Low Dose Finasteride

The SuppVersity Science Round-Up live on SHR Thursdays 1PM EST!

As expected, Carl and I did not get to all of the potential topics in yesterday's installment of the SuppVersity Science Round Up on Super Human Radio (download the podcast here). The topics we covered were awesome (the protein study that was in the news, yesterday; nitrate supplementation; breast cancer and health benefits of minimalist multi- or rather tri-vitamins), but even the promised stevia based wound ointment did not make it into the 68min show (yeah, we went longer, once again). Therefore, it seems only logical to give you a brief summary of what you have or have not been missing in yesterday's installment of the thursdaily SuppVersity Science Round Up.

Alright, why don't we just start with the wound ointment and finish up with a brief mash-up of selected pieces from the 2nd line?

Stevia wound ointment improves tissue regeneration after incision

In a recent study that was conducted the St Johns College of Pharmacy in Bangalore, India, Kuntal Das investigated the effect of an easily compounded stevia containing wound ointment on the wound healing process of a pretty hefty excision wound that was 2.5 cm in width (circular area = 4.90 cm²) and 0.2 cm deep on the back of male Swiss Albino mice  and compared the results to a longstanding standard treatment (in the developing world still the goto ointment to be applied) with povidone-iodine, a stable chemical complex of polyvinylpyrrolidone and elemental iodine.

Stevia: Drink it, eat it, rub it, ... !?

How to prepare your own wound ointment: (1) Go and buy some decolorized 80%+ stevia extract and a parafin wax carrier wherever you want (2)  Mix the stevia into the white parafin base so that you get a 5/95 ratio of stevia to parafin.

Upon examining the wounds of the rats after 14 days of topical application of the self-made stevia ointments with a 2.5% and 5% w/w stevia content, Da found that the overall healing rate was dose dependently increased in the stevia group (Da. 2013):

• the rate of wound closure was significantly higher
  
• there was a decrease in the period of epithelialization 
  
• the skin breaking strength increased,
  
• the weight of the granulation tissue was decreased,
  
• the hydroxyproline content was elevated, and
  
• the wound surface microbial load decreased
  

In view of the anti-inflammatory effects of stevia and the recent news on similar effects being observed with a likewise anti-inflammatory curcumin ointment on burns (see "Curcumin to treat burns"), these improvements in wound healing and the formation of new unscarred tisse probably don't come as a surprise. With more and more germs becoming resistant to standard antibiotics, another item on the "benefit list", namely the anti-microbial effects of the topically applied stevia ointment, could however turn out to be of greater importance, than a speedier wound closure, anyway.

Figure 1: Effects of stevia ointment containing 2.5% or 5% stevia extract on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; left); effect of orally administered stevia on parameters of wound healing (data expressed relative to untreated group; middle) and on on excision wound surface microbial load (in CFU/ml; right)

And if you are not into rubbing anything on your wound, I guess you will be happy to hear that similar, yet obviously less pronounced effects can be achieved if you simply eat or drink ~1.5-3g of 80% pure stevia extract per day - I know that's plenty, but this is the human equivalent dose of the 250-500mg/kg the rodents in the Da study received... what? No, I don't know if stevia suppositories will work as well, but maybe you could ask Mr. Da, if he was interested in doing another study ;-)

Selected additional "news quickies" that did not make it into yesterday's show

• 

  Suggested read: "Stretching before a workout can make you weak"

  Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. In a recent crossover study with male healthy, physically active subjects, both regimen provided similar beneficial results in terms of the first-felt and maximum tolerant-felt range of motioncompared to control.
  
  Contrary to the correctly applied kineseo tape (just bandaging yourself all over with packaging band won't cut it, guys ;-), the proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation protocol did yet not blunt the post exercise increase in hamstring muscle stiffness and the concomitant decrease in maximal knee flexion peak torque at 180 °/s that occured to similar extends in both the PNF and the no-stretch control condition (Chen. 2013).
• Treadmill running protects "Parkinson's mice" from neuronal loss. Listen up guys, even though you may not have been so concerned about the +117% and +236% increase in breast cancer risk in non-exercising and non-exercising women, who were also under psychological stress, Carl and I talked about on yesterday's show, you are by no means off the hook. After all, men may be (relatively) protected against breast cancer, but on the other hand more likely to develop Parkinson's. And as if that was not bad enough, the symptoms will also be more severe in men than in women (Haaxma. 2006).
  
  

  

  Just in case you forgot: Among tons of other health benefits, moderate daily caffeine intake in amounts similar to what you would get from 3 regular cups of coffee  (300-450mg) appears to exert protective effects against Parkinson's, as well (read more)

  Against that background, you are probably either relieved (if you are a physical culturist) or annoyed, when I am telling you that a recent rodent study clearly demonstrated how 30 min of aerobic exercise (as good as mice with existing MPTP/P induce "Parkinson's" can "exercise" on a treadmill) prevented further loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons, and ameliorated existing motor balance and coordination dysfunction (Sung. 2013).
  
  These results do by the way stand in line with recent findings from a human study by Abrantes et al. who found that "[c]ovarying for age and gender, higher levels of physical activity were associated with significantly less fatigue, as well as a trend for less apathy and depression and greater positive affect." (Abrantes. 2013) - regardless of the type of exercise the patient wanted / could still perform, by the way!
• Infertility due to finasteride usage: While it's real, it's rarely permanent As a recent case report that has been published ahead of print in the online edition of International Urology and Nephrology ealier this week shows, the "prolonged [8.5 years] use of low-dose [1 mg daily] finasteride for androgenetic alopecia" can induce DNA damage to sperm, which- in this particular case . rendered a 40-year old patient totally infertile (I don't want to think about what happened if the sperm was only "mildly damaged", though).
  
  With respect to the underlying mechanism, Ahmet Salvarci and Okan Istanbulluoglu, two researchers from the Rumi University in Meram, Konya  (Turkey) state:
  

  "It was reported in an in vitro study that dihydrotestosterone promoted the expression of claudin-11, the protein component in tight junctions between Sertoli cells. It has been shown that finasteride may cause a disruption of tight junctions and trigger a cascade of immunologic reactions, by causing germ cell atresia. Although the significance of dihydrotestosterone in spermatogenesis is not fully understood, the absence of this molecule may cause spermatogenic failure." (Salvaci. 2013)

  Now, the good news is, after the treatment was discontinued, the sperm recovered - slowly and from generation to generation, so to say, but it did- contrary to what dozens of horror stories on the Internet will make you believe,  eventually recover: 11 months after taking the last 1mg pill of the type II 5a-reductase inhibitor that blocks the conversion of testosterone to DHT (read more about 5-alpha reductase), his sperms DNA had recovered and his wife became pregnant. She gave birth to a healthy a baby boy and they lived happily... ah, wrong genre ;-)

So, that's it for today, but there are more news on Facebook and of course the official saturdaily installment of On Short Notice, tomorrow. So, stay tuned!

References:

• Abrantes AM, Friedman JH, Brown RA, Strong DR, Desaulniers J, Ing E, Saritelli J, Riebe D. Physical Activity and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms of Parkinson Disease. J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol. 2013 Aug 20.
• Chen CH, Huang TS, Chai HM, Jan MH, Lin JJ. Two Stretching Treatments on Hamstring: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation versus Kinesio Taping Application. J Sport Rehabil. 2013 Oct 11.
• Das K. Investigation of wound healing potential of aqueous crude extract and ointment of Stevia rebaudiana Bert. in mice. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. 2013: 1-6.
• Haaxma CA, Bloem BR, Borm GF, Oyen WJ, Leenders KL, Eshuis S, Booij J, Dluzen DE, Horstink MW. Gender differences in Parkinson's disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2007 Aug;78(8):819-24.
• Salvarci A, Istanbulluoğlu O. Secondary infertility due to use of low-dose finasteride. Int Urol Nephrol. 2013 Oct 16.
• Sung YH, Kim SC, Hong HP, Park CY, Shin MS, Kim CJ, Seo JH, Kim DY, Kim DJ, Cho HJ. Treadmill exercise ameliorates dopaminergic neuronal loss through suppressing microglial activation in Parkinson's disease mice. Life Sci. 2013 Oct 12. pii: S0024-3205(12)00590-5.

Eccentric Exercise IGF1 & Athlete's Heart; Long or Short Intervals, Both Improve Arterial Stiffness. Plus: Exercise Heals Wounds & Makes You Rust Proof Within One Year!

Controlled exhaustion = positive adaptation; continuous exhaustion = wear and tear = one out of 57,002 who suffer from cardiac arrest during a marathon (data based on Webner. 2013)

As announced on Saturday, already this is a "special edition" of the On Short Notice series, focusing exclusively on exercise related studies. With

• two studies on heart health, 
• one on wound healing and the last one on the 
• bullet proof endogenous anti-oxidant system of trained athletes, 

this installment of the "Exercise News Roundup" and two studies on different HIIT, it does however have both a health, as well as a HIIT focus.

I know that does not sound as sexy as being big and buffed, but what's the use of that if you don't fit the coffin, you're about to need, when your looks are more important to you than your health?

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IGF-Response to exercise implicated in "athletes heart" A group of polish researchers describes in their latest paper that's been published ahead of print in the International Journal of Sports Medicine, how the differential IGF-1 response to eccentric (ECC) and concentric (CON) arm exercise in 10 trained strength athletes (1.5-2.0 h on 3-5 days weekly) and 10 age-matched healthy non-trained subjects could explain the differences in the degree of left ventricular hypertrophy, the scientists had measure via M-mode and 2D Doppler echocardiography beforehand (Zebrowska. 2013).

IGF1 and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH): The correlation stands out of question, but what about the implications? Is this a causative relationship? And what's more: How dangerous are LVH  and having an athlete's heart, at all?

The athletes with LVH did not only have higher IGF-1 levels at baseline (52±5 nM vs. 46±7 nM for controls, p<0.05), they also showed a significantly more pronounced IGF-1 response during the eccentric (ECC) exercise test, with athletes with LVH exhibiting 30% higher and athletes without LVH 15% higher IGF-1 levels than untrained controls (54±6 nM). Moreover, both CON and ECC exercise resulted in higher serum IGFBP-3 levels in LVH athletes compared to controls (242±57 and 274±58, athletes, vs. 215±63 and 244±67, controls, nM, p<0.05), while no differences in other hormones were found between groups. Yet though the scientists' conclusion that these findings would "suggest a role of IGF-1, possibly released from contracting muscle, in stimulating LV hypertrophy in resistance training" is certainly right, we would be ill-advised to jump to any conclusions, hastily by simply (and faultily) equating correlation and causation, here.

Moreover, we should acknowledge that the previously accepted paradigm that LVH, per se, is a bad thing that has to be avoided at all costs is actually not supported by empirical evidence, or as Florescu et al. have it "'Supranormal' cardiac function in athletes is due to better endothelial and arterial function, related to lower oxidative stress, with optimized ventriculo-arterial coupling; athlete's heart is purely a physiological phenomenon, associated with 'supranormal' cardiac function, and there are no markers of myocardial fibrosis." (Florescu. 2010)... in short: in the absence of myocardial fibrosis, a big heart is nothing you will die from - how IGF-1 could actually prevent the latter, i.e. the occurrence of fibrotic structures due to uncompensated growth of the heart muscle, would yet be the topic for another quite lengthy blogpost ;-)

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This image shows a study participant of another study during a VO2 max test on the exact same bike Rakobowchuk et al. used (WSCU.edu). Wrt to the protocols the researchers remark "the protocols involved an identical total training volume and time commitment but differed regarding metabolic stress" With the HIIT trial inducing greater metabolic stress due to the longer periods at supra-amaximal workloads (cf. Turner. 2006).

Heavy or moderate interval training equally heart healthy - at least if you take their effect on arterial stiffness and heart rate dynamics as a measure. That's the message of an article that was published ahead of print in the European Journal of Applied Physiology at then end of last week. During a six-week experiment, Mark Rakobowchuk and his colleagues from the University of Essex and the University of Leeds investigated which of the following protocols (all performed three times per week, for a total of 18 session; 2min warm-up for each; cf. Rakobowchuk. 2013),

• MIIT - moderate intensity interval training consisting of 10s : 20s cycles at 120% of the pretraining max. workrate : 20W for 30, 35 and 40min (bi-weekly progression), or
• HIIT - high intensity interval training consisting of 30s : 60s cycles at 120% of the pretraining max. workrate : 20W for 30, 35 and 40min (bi-weekly progression),

would elicit more favorable changes in carotid artery stiffness, blood pressure, and heart rate variability in a group of 20 healthy, previously untrained young men and women (n = 7 men and 13 women; age 23.5y; BMI 23).

Trainees who want to increase their VO2max should still do HIIT, because only the subjects in the HIIT training group achieved statistically significant increases with respect to this outcome measure (+14% in HIIT vs. +3% VO2 max in MIIT).

Just as the scientists had speculated, their hypothesis that irrespective of the metabolic stress, which would be higher in the HIIT vs. the MIIT trial, the total volume, which was identical would determine the overall adaptive response. For them it was therefore not surprising that all measured parameters of  heart health, i.e.blood pressure, heart rate dynamics and carotid arterial stiffness, improved without significant inter-group differences. Most notably, though, those with the highest arterial stiffness before the trial saw the greatest reductions!

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Figure 2: Additional exercise sped up the wound healing process only in the obese rodents, not the lean ones (Pence. 2013)

Exercise speeds healing of subcutaneous wounds in obesity. This was allegedly observed only in obese rodents, but since the underlying mechanism was neither mediated by gene or protein expression of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1A and tumor necrosis factor-alpha or the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10 in the wounds, I felt it was still worth mentioning, also because it is, as the scientists point out,

"the first report of an exercise effect on wound healing that is unrelated to alterations in wound site inflammation." (Pence. 2013) 

Future trials will have to elucidate whether clotting and homeostasis, which occur in the earliest stage of wound healing, approximately 30 min after the trauma may be involved in this phenomenon.

In this context, some of you will probably remember my recent post on the "Antithrombotic effects of caffeine blunt platelet activity in response to interval training" that exercise increases the tendency of your blood to clot - a tendency that does obviously come handy, when you are bleeding. That the increase in coagulation factors came into effect only in the obese, yet not in the normal weight control, in turn, could be related to the presence of existing hemostastic imbalances due to obesity which would have been corrected by the 30min of treadmill running the rodents in the exercise groups performed at a pace of 12 m/min on a 5% incline for the final 30 min of the light period (0930–1000 h), three days before until five days after the wounding.

A bunch of maggots on a diabetic wound.

Be that as it may, there are more than enough sedentary, "SAD dieting" (and the standard high fat diet rodents are fed in studies like this is nothing but a clone of the S-tandard A-merican D-diet) full-blown or pre-diabetic obese human beings who could likewise benefit from as little as 30min of daily aerobic activity. I mean think about it, if you could thus avoid having 50-100 maggots being placed on those nasty diabetic wounds (see picture on the right) that would never heal without those tiny critters secreting their salivary juices onto the wound to liquefy and subsequently ingest and further degrade the dead tissue in their gut, you can hardly argue that this is too much to ask for, can you?

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"Rust proof" athletes don't need vitamin pills with copious amounts of anti-oxidants and don't have to be afraid of fruit with their synergistic blend of small, but highly effective and synergistic amounts of vitamins and polyphenols, either.

Oxidation proof after 1 year+ of regular aerobic + anaerobic training. According to a paper that's soon going to be published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise trained athletes between the ages of 21 and 35yrs who had been participating in a structured exercise training program (including both aerobic and anaerobic) for the past 12 months, with each session lasting no less than 45 min per session, as well as no less than three sessions per week, are virtually "rust proof".

That's at least my allegedly nonchalant interpretation of the non-existent increases in serum markers of oxidation the scientists from the University of Memphis observed in their 12 male subjects (BMI 25kg/m², body fat 12.8%; VO2Max 20 ml/kg/min) in response to four training sessions separated by 1 wk.

The Sessions were counterbalanced and included either a no-exercise condition (subjects simply rested for the entire period) or one of the these three:

• MISS - moderate intensity + duration steady state: 70% HR reserve for 60min; total time: 60min with 60min of actual work
• HIIT - high intensity + moderate duration interval sprints: 5x60s at 100% + 225s recovery yielding a 1:3.75 work-to-rest ratio ("Within each interval, subjects were instructed to pedal between 80 and 100 rpm for the first 45 s, and then for the final 15 s, subjects were instructed to pedal as fast as possible"); total time: 20 min with 300s of actual work
• MaxIIT - maximal intensity + short duration interval: 10x15s at a wattage of 200% of VO2max, followed by 116s of recovery (1:7.7 work-to-rest ratio); total time: 20 min with 150s of actual work

All exercise bouts were performed on the same cycle ergometer used for the GXT, and subjects reported to the laboratory in the morning (0600–0900 h) after a minimum 10-h overnight fast. The HR was continuously monitored via Polar (TM) HR monitors and blood was drawn at the end of the 20-min rest period  (corresponding to the immediate postexercise blood samples) and 30 and 60 min after the 20-min rest period (corresponding to the postexercise blood samples).

Figure 3: Total antioxidant capacity (TEAC), SOD, CAT and GPx values immediately (0min), 30min and 60min after the respective exercise bouts (data based on Farney. 2013)

The respective total work performed during the trials was 461.1kJ, 96.9kJ, 96.9kJ for the MISS, HIIT and MaxIIT trials, respectively, the perceived exertion was highest in the MaxIIT trial (16.7 vs. 15.6 for HIIT and 13.5 for MISS), while the maximal heart rate 171.7bpm was achieved in the HIIT trial. Still,

"No differences were noted in malondialdehyde, H2O2, advanced oxidation protein product, or NOx between conditions or across time (P > 0.05) [while the a]ntioxidant capacity was generally highest at 30 and 60 min after exercise and lowest at 0 min after exercise." (Farney. 2013; my emphases)

If you will, you could even go one step further and argue that the total antioxidant capacity increases in well-rested, well conditioned athletes in response to exhaustive exercise bouts. Though, this increase reaches statistical significance in the MaxIIT trial only (see figure 3).

Hungry for more news? Visit the SuppVersity on Facebook!

That's it for today, ... but only as far as SuppVersity posts go. In about 2h at 1PM (EST), to be precise you can - if you want - listen to me on Super Human Radio. I am going to pick up on the topic of the first hour which is "Moderate Alcohol Consumption how (Un-)Healthy is it really" and do my best to provide some insights into the discrepancy that exists between reliable scientific evidence, the media coverage on the topic and Mr Average Joe's interpretation of the latter. And if you ain't into booze, just work out ;-) [update: download the podcast]

References:

• Farney TM, McCarthy CG, Canale RE, Schilling BK, Whitehead PN, Bloomer RJ. Absence of blood oxidative stress in trained men after strenuous exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Oct;44(10):1855-63.
• Pence BD, Dipietro LA, Woods JA. Exercise Speeds Cutaneous Wound Healing in High-Fat Diet-Induced Obese Mice. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Oct;44(10):1846-1854.
• Rakobowchuk M, Harris E, Taylor A, Cubbon RM, Birch KM. Moderate and heavy metabolic stress interval training improve arterial stiffness and heart rate dynamics in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2013 Sep 16.
• Turner AP, Cathcart AJ, Parker ME, Butterworth C, Wilson J, Ward SA (2006) Oxygen uptake and muscle desaturation kinetics during intermittent cycling. Med Sci Sports Exerc 38:492–503.
• Webner D, Duprey KM, Drezner JA, Cronholm P, Roberts WO. Sudden cardiac arrest and death in United States marathons. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Oct;44(10):1843-5.
• Zebrowska A, Waśkiewicz Z, Zając A, Gąsior Z, Galbo H, Langfort J. IGF-1 Response to Arm Exercise with Eccentric and Concentric Muscle Contractions in Resistance-Trained Athletes with Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. Int J Sports Med. 2013 Sep 7.

Vitamin A Regrows Liver Tissue. Polydextrose Makes Dieting a Breeze. Exercise Blunts Negative Effects of High Fructose Diet. Diabetes Precipitates Female Sexual Dysfunction.

I did miss my own 1000-posts jubilee!

This week it's pretty easy to find the SuppVersity figure of the week. It's 1011 and that's the number of individual posts this "blog" currently holds. Actually, the very moment I hit the "publish" button on this one, it's going to be 1012 (see image on the right). I guess, I should have 'celebrated' that twelve posts before, but you know how I am, it's about the quality, not the quantity and though I am aware that the latter is unquestionably fluctuating, I would hope that each of you has found one or two 'pearls' - I mean, if you didn't why are you coming back regularly, then?

Apropos regularly, it's Saturday and thus about time for a couple of "On Short Notice" items. So let's not waste any time flattering and get to the science news business:

Vitamin A essential for liver regeneration. Plus: β-carotene and cancer even in non-smokers

So much for the vitamin A vs. D antagonism - in fact, one can't go without the other: Vitamin A & D synergize against liver cancer and increase survival rates by more then 75% (read more)

(Blaner 2013) -- Other than SuppVersity readers, the average slef-proclaimed health-conscious citizen probably thinks of (false) horror stories about vitamin A laden polar bear livers killing a handful of ravenous arctic explorers. The fact that the active form of vitamin A is actually one of the most important hormone-like substances in your body that's essential for the maturation process of stem cells, on the other had, got lost at least since vitamin D the supposed vitamin A antagonist became all the rage in the past decade. Scientists from the Coumbia University in New York and the Chernivtsi National University in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, are now going to publish a paper that should remind everyone (including the science community) that the contemporary black and white painting on D & A may well impair the progress we make in our understanding of our own physiology.

Missing half your liver? Not a problem if you got enough "liver building" vitamin A ;-)

In a mouse model which has been genetically modified so that the rodents weren't able to store adequate levels of retinoids  (yeah, there is a whole family of "vitamins A") in the liver, showed a delayed and incomplete regenerative response to partial hepatectomy (cutting away parts of the liver; PHE). As the scientists point out,

"[t]he requirement for proper retinoic acid signaling to allow for normal liver regeneration is underscored by studies of hepatocyte-specific RXRα-null mice [mice lacking the retinoid receptor]. When RXRα is ablated there is reduced hepatocyte lifespan, which is accompanied by premature hepatocyte death and the appearance of necrotic areas. RXRα ablation also results in delayed hepatocyte proliferation following PHE." (Blaner 2013)

At first sight this observation goes again the often cited liver-toxicity of vitamin A. In view of nature's favorite dose-response curve, which is bell-shaped and indicates that bad things (often similar or even identical ones) happen in both deficiency and toxicity states, it's only logical, though. Plus, similar effects have been observed for wound-healing decades ago (Gerber. 1982) and Ehrlich and Hunt report in a 1968 paper in the Annals of Surgery that the administration of vitamin A blunts the negative effects on cortisol on wound healing and appears to be necessary for optimal tissue regeneration (Ehrlich. 1968).

So, another good reason to pop vitamin A supplements?

Supplementation with very high doses of isolated beta-carotene could in fact induce a state of "vitamin A resistance" in response to the formation of a metabolite that blocks the RXR receptor just like a SERM like clomiphene citrate block the estrogen receptor (read more).

For a healthy person living on a paleo-esque diet supplements should not be necessary. The amount of vitamin A and its pre-cursor beta-carotene you get from a whole-foods diet is usually adequate, even if you don't consume liver or organ meat on a regular basis. The use of what you will generally get, when you go to a healthfood store and buy a "vitamin A" supplement, i.e. a high dose beta carotene, only, product is probably counter-indicated not just for smokers, where it appears to increase the risk of lung cancer development, but also in normal healthy individuals who usually get plenty of beta-carotene from the myriad of fortified foods your local supermarket has to offer - after all, one of the most recent meta-analyses showed that 20-30mg/day increase everyone's risk of lung cancer development by 16% and that of stomach cancer by 34% (Druesne-Pecollo. 2010).

Polydextrose has non-noticeable, but significant satiety effects

(Astbury. 2013) -- I know the headline sounds confusing, but basically that's the long and short of the results, Astbury, Taylor and MacDonald present in their most recent isse in the British Journal of Nutrition. The scientists fed 12 male and 9 female healthy university students (mean age 23.2y; BMI 22.3kg/m²) who had consumed identical breakfasts at 8:00am with isocaloric (210kcal) "preload" mid-morning snacks at 10:45am and 90min before they had a pasta-based test meal, of which they were supposed to eat as much as it would take to feel comfortably full.

Figure 1: Food intake (in kcal) after mid-morning snack with different amounts of polydextrose (left); caloric intake on the subsequent meals of the day (right; Astbury. 2013)

As the data in figure 1 indicates, the consumption of the liquid preload which contained either 0, 6.3, 12 or 21g of the sweet tasting polysaccharide that reaches the colon largely undigested, where 50% of the polydextrose molecules will be fermented to yield CO2 and volatile SCFA such as propionate and butyrate and the rest will be excreted intact in the feces lead to dose-dependent reductions in the amount of food that was consumed in the subsequent meal.

50% energy availability, a source of SCFA, tasty & easy to process - perfect diet 'food'?

With only 50% energy availability and 50% being fermented to short chain fatty acids (SFCA),  the 89% dextrose, 10% sorbitol & 1% percent citric acid molecule, polydextrose could actually be a better choice for dieters than WMHDP (learn more about the SCFA based fat burning effects of resistant starches and how to make fat burning pancakes)

Interestingly, the reduced energy intake was not brought about by a consciously noticeable reduction in either fullness, hunger or desire to eat in response to the test meal (the scientists assessed that by questionnaires). And despite the fact that the effect was only transient, it's actually good and important news that the men and women did not accommodate for the 12-23% (male participants) and 6-18% (female participants) reduction in energy intake on the subsequent meal.

If that worked with every meal and you could achieve a ~20% reduction in energy intake, this alone should help you shed some weight pretty effortlessly. And as if that was not enough, already the polydextrose drinks was even more palatable than the sugary original; with the highest polydextrose content being perceived as most "creamy" - bon appetit ;-)

Even shorter news - "On real short notice", so to say  ;-)

I am well aware that what began as short news has as of late turned into a bunch of regular news - well, almost. So I decided to try and cut the last two items in today's installment short, in order to have them fit into what you would actually expect from a "on short notice" ;-)

• Exercise nullifies bad effects of high fructose diet (Moraes-Silva. 2013) -- A paper by scientists from the University of Sao Paulo puts the "lack of exercise / insuficient activity" hypothesis of obesity back on the radar. Even with an otherwise highly detrimental liquid fructose overload of 100g/l in their drinking water, the rodents in the study Moraes-Silva et al. conducted, did have normal (within statistical limits) glucose tolerance, blood pressure and heart disease risk as the rodents in the sedentary and the exercised control groups.

  

  Figure 2: Regular exercise maintains insulin sensitivity, cardiovascular disease risk and blood pressure even in the presence of pathologically high liquid fructose ingestion (Moraes-Silva. 2013)

  The regular treadmill running also blunted the autonomic dysfunction that was characterized by "an approximate 50% decrease in baroreflex sensitivity and 24% in HR variability", as well as increases in sympathovagal balance (140%) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (45%). Now you tell me "it's all about diet", only. Let alone: "Exercise just makes you hungry!"

• Diabetes and female sexual dysfunction correlate (Pontiroli. 2013) -- We already know that diabetes is a, if not the #1 risk factor for male sexual dysfunction, these days. Now a recent meta-analysis that's going to be published in one of the future issues of The Journal of Sexual Medicine found a 150% increase in sexual dysfunction in type II diabetes. Whether or not this was related to the higher depression rates in diabetic women cannot be said. What is certain, though, is that the BMI was a positive predictor of the effect size. In other words, the negative impact on sexual function increased with the degree of adiposity.
  
  Additional read for those women who feel it's their husband's performance that's to blame for their anorgasmia: "Pedalium murex Linn. fruits more effective than sildenafil in the long run and increases testosterone by 125%" (read more)
   

Now that's it for today, but I am now going out on a limb and promise another serving of short news with a focus on exercise early next week - something like the previous "Health & Exercise"- or the "Get Lean & Stay Lean" quickies and for once I can even tell you about one news that's definitely going to be in there - something about working out with and without breakfast.

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The obligatory reminder: In the mean time I'd suggest you devour the latest SuppVersity Facebook News @ www.facebook.com/SuppVersity. As usual they will receive a couple of updates way before the next official SuppVersity post is going to see the light of the day. Let's see, some of the most recent news are even remotely related to the On Short Notice items of today:

• Penis pumps - Scientists believe they are going to make a revival as a means of penile rehabilitation after surgery for prostate cancer (read more)
• Stress renders cancer immortal - What has just been observed in a rodent model of prostate cancer could have important implications for other cancers, as well (read more)
• PDE5 inhibitor for him, PDE-4 inhibitor for her? Study suggests: PDE-4 inhibitors could improve female sexual function (read more)
• Goose liver for the liver - When it's high in selenium goose liver could protect your liver from the assault of excessive alcohol consumption (read more)

As promised, there will be more. So in case you have not done so already,  you best like the SuppVersity right now so that the latest news will always appear in your news-feed.... ah, and about all that geeky science reading, don't forget that there is more to life than dieting and working out ;-)

References:

• Astbury NM, Taylor MA, Macdonald IA. Polydextrose results in a dose-dependent reduction in ad libitum energy intake at a subsequent test meal. Br J Nutr. 2013 Jan 23:1-9.
• Druesne-Pecollo N, Latino-Martel P, Norat T, Barrandon E, Bertrais S, Galan P, Hercberg S. Beta-carotene supplementation and cancer risk: a systematic review and metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. Int J Cancer. 2010 Jul 1;127(1):172-84.
• Ehrlich HP, Hunt TK. Effects of cortisone and vitamin A on wound healing. Ann Surg. 1968 Mar;167(3):324-8.
• Gerber LE, Erdman JW Jr. Effect of dietary retinyl acetate, beta-carotene and retinoic acid on wound healing in rats. J Nutr. 1982 Aug;112(8):1555-64.
• Moraes-Silva IC, Mostarda CT, Moreira ED, Silva KA, Dos Santos F, De Angelis K, Farah VD, Irigoyen MC. Preventive role of exercise training in autonomic, hemodynamic and metabolic parameters in rats under high risk of metabolic syndrome development. J Appl Physiol. 2013 Jan 17.
• Pontiroli AE, Cortelazzi D, and Morabito A. Female Sexual Dysfunction and Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. J Sex Med. 2013 [e-pub ahead of print]