Gas cooker exposure can lower blood pressure, study finds

GIVES NEW MEANING TO THE DRUG ADDICTION 

KNOWN AS SNIFFING GAS 

KING'S COLLEGE LONDON

The study, published recently in Circulation Research and led by a team from King's College London, has investigated how nitrogen dioxide can impact the cardiovascular system.

The study examined the blood chemistry and cardiovascular changes of 12 healthy volunteers. They sat next to a domestic gas cooker for ninety minutes followed by ninety minutes with normal background nitrogen levels. On another occasion, the volunteers were exposed to normal background nitrogen dioxide levels for three hours.

The period next to a gas cooker increased nitrogen dioxide levels in the air 10-fold and subsequently lowered blood pressure by 5 mm Hg from 45 minutes onwards. The study also found that blood levels of the substance nitrite increased by 15% after 15 minutes.

Previous studies have shown nitrite, which can be converted from dietary nitrate following the ingestion of green leafy vegetables and beetroot, can lower blood pressure. This study suggests nitrite can also be made when the body processes nitrogen dioxide and makes a link between previous research focusing on dietary nitrate and studies of inhalation of nitrogen dioxide for the first time.

Air pollution contributes to illness and death in the general population, but it is a complex mixture of airborne particles and gases, including nitrogen dioxide. Working out the individual effects of each is challenging and there has been a running debate about how to distinguish between the independent effects of nitrogen dioxide and respirable particles in the air.

While the evidence linking nitrogen dioxide to a worsening of symptoms in respiratory disease is well established, its short-term impact on the heart and circulation is less clear. Notably, people with domestic gas appliances or people working in kitchens with gas cookers may be exposed to higher levels of nitrogen dioxide, but with less particulate matter, than that found on the street.

This unique study helps to shed light on some of the rapid effects of nitrogen dioxide on the heart and circulation. Looking at previous air pollution studies, it had been unclear whether the nitrite in the blood came from nitrogen dioxide or from particulate matter causing inflammation and generation of nitric oxide, which is converted to nitrite. This study suggests that it is the nitrogen dioxide that causes nitrite to be formed in the blood.

Crucially, while this effect of short-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide in healthy volunteers may be beneficial, there are other studies of adverse effects of long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide, and on adverse effects of short-term exposure in asthmatics.

Further research will confirm these findings in larger studies and examine the effects on a more varied cohort.

Dr Andrew Webb, Clinical Senior Lecturer at King's College London, said: "High blood pressure is the biggest single contributor to deaths around the world. Therefore, if exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas cookers contributes to lowering blood pressure, this could be beneficial per se, and in the context of general air pollution may partially offset the adverse cardiovascular effects of short-term exposures to elevated particulate matter concentrations.

"The mechanism by which nitrogen dioxide lowers blood pressure appears to be through linking into the same pathway as dietary nitrate (found in green leafy vegetables and beetroot): both result in an increase in blood nitrite levels. Therefore, it is not just what you eat, but how you cook it that matters."

Neuromarketing of taste

Taste similarity of food products can be compared with the help of electroencephalography

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

 

Marina Domracheva and Sofya Kulikova, researchers from HSE University's campus in Perm, have discovered a new approach to analyse the perceived similarity of food products, based on electroencephalography (EEG) signals. They note that the power of gamma oscillations can reflect similarities in a cross-modal approach. Their paper was published in the journal Food Quality and Preference.

The most common tools used to understand people's perception of food products are hall tests, surveys and observations. There is a general assumption that consumers can evaluate and express their real preferences, but it is not uncommon when a consumer's expressed opinion of the product does not comply with their behaviour. In addition, such research can be costly for companies.

Neuromarketing may help to eliminate these troubles. To analyse consumers' preferences, neuromarketing specialists can apply neuroimaging technologies, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG).

The researchers from HSE University used a cross-modal approach to study how food product similarity is assessed. This approach is based on the integration of senses from different modalities (taste, smell, and visual appearance) in an integral image of an object. For this experiment, 18 participants tasted multi-cereal candies, and then looked at images of similar objects, such as cookies, cereal bars or oatmeal. The respondents evaluated the similarities of each of these products with the candy they had just tried. While this was happening, their brain activity was recorded using EEG.

Two EEG-based metrics were considered as a potential measure of product similarity: the power of induced gamma oscillations during a 400-600 ms period after the presentation of a visual stimulus and an amplitude of N400 evoked response potentials.

In EEG-registered brain activity, oscillations of varying frequency and amplitude can be detected, which are related to various psychological processes. Gamma oscillations have frequency over 30 Hz and are detected when the brain is solving tasks that require focusing the attention and exchanging the information between different brain areas.

Evoked gamma oscillation with a power of 30-80 Hz is thought to ensure the distributed processing of information in various areas of the brain to form a common consistent perception of a given object on the basis of its various characteristics - visual, audial, and taste. For example, if the vocalization of an animal is congruent with the animal's image, the power of the evoked gamma oscillations grows. The researchers also assumed that a similar effect may be observed when food products are compared. And indeed, when the respondents looked at products that were similar to multi-cereal candies (such as cereal bars), the power of the gamma oscillations was at their highest.

'The amplitude of the N400-like negative difference component is registered by EEG when we see a minor error or incongruency: e.g, between a taste feeling and the visual perception of the product,' says Sofya Kulikova. 'When an experiment participant tasted the candy and then viewed an image of broccoli or fried potatoes, the amplitude was at its highest.'

The N400-like component is a wave that appears on the EEG at about 400 ms after the onset of the stimulus and has a negative amplitude polarity.

It turned out that both approaches are reasonable, but the N400-like component amplitude displayed a high variability among the respondents. Therefore, in a perceived similarity assessment, it is better to rely on the power of gamma oscillations.

The approach discovered by the researchers may be applied to neuromarketing studies of food taste perception. In particular, this method can be a useful tool to study the perception of new innovative products manufactured with the use of innovative technologies, or from unconventional ingredients, to which consumers might be unaccustomed.

###

Repeated head impacts associated with later-life depression symptoms, worse cognitive function

Largest study to date on living patients lends insight into the differences between the consequences of traumatic brain injury or concussion and repetitive subconcussive head impacts.

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

 

(Boston) -- Scientists have long believed that a single traumatic brain injury (TBI) earlier in life may contribute to problems with memory, thinking and depression later in life. In most previous studies, however, research failed to examine the possible role of having a history of exposure to repetitive head impacts, including those leading to "subconcussive" injuries, in these later-life problems. In the largest study of its kind, an association has been found in living patients exposed to repetitive head impacts and difficulties with cognitive functioning and depression years or decades later.

Scientists from the Boston University (BU) Alzheimer's Disease and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Centers, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and San Francisco VA Healthcare System teamed up to analyze the records of 13,323 individuals age 40 and older (average age 62) who participate in the internet-based Brain Health Registry. Of those, 725 or 5 percent of participants reported exposure to previous repetitive head impacts through contact sports, abuse or military service. In addition to repetitive head impact history, the scientists also examined the effects of having a TBI with and without loss of consciousness.

Along with self-report questionnaires of repetitive head impact and TBI history, participants completed measures of depressive symptoms and computerized cognitive tests. The findings, published in the journal Neurology, reveal that participants with a history of both repetitive head impacts and TBI reported greater depression symptoms than those who did not have such history. In addition, when repetitive head impacts and TBI were examined separately, a history of repetitive head impacts had the strongest effect on later-life symptoms of depression. The findings were independent of age, sex, racial identity and education level.

"The findings underscore that repetitive hits to the head, such as those from contact sport participation or physical abuse, might be associated with later-life symptoms of depression. It should be made clear that this association is likely to be dependent on the dose or duration of repetitive head impacts and this information was not available for this study," said Michael Alosco, PhD, associate professor of neurology at BU School of Medicine (BUSM) and co-director of the BU Alzheimer's Disease Center Clinical Core.

There was a dose-response-like pattern between head trauma and depression symptoms. Specifically, participants without any history of either TBI or repetitive head impacts had the fewest symptoms. While depression symptoms increased when a history of TBI alone was present, depression symptoms were highest for the groups who had a history of both repetitive head impacts and TBI. Indeed, the group that had a history of repetitive head impacts and TBI with loss of consciousness reported the most depressive symptoms.

A similar cumulative effect was seen among those exposed to repetitive head impacts and TBI on tests of memory, learning, processing speed, and reaction time. Participants with a history of repetitive head impacts or TBI had worse performance on some of the tests compared to those without any head trauma history, and those with both a history of repetitive head impacts and TBI with loss of consciousness had worse performance on almost all of these computerized cognitive tests.

"These findings add to the growing knowledge about the long-term neurological consequences of brain trauma," said Robert Stern, PhD, professor of neurology, neurosurgery and anatomy & neurobiology at BUSM and director of clinical research at the BU CTE Center. "It should be noted that not all people with a history of repetitive hits to the head will develop later-life problems with cognitive functioning and depression. However, results from this study provide further evidence that exposure to repetitive head impacts, such as through the routine play of tackle football, plays an important role in the development in these later-life cognitive and emotional problems," added Stern, one of the senior authors of the study.

A major limitation of the study is that the researchers did not have access to measurements or estimates of the degree of repetitive impact exposure nor TBI frequency. In October, BU researchers reported a dose-response relationship between the number of years of exposure to tackle football (regardless of the number of concussions) and the presence and severity of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In a sample of 266 deceased football players, each year of exposure to tackle football was associated with 30 percent increased odds of having CTE and 17 percent increased odds of having severe CTE. It is unknown if any subjects in this study have CTE or any other neurodegenerative disease.

The research team plans to extend their work through continued collaboration between BU and UCSF investigators utilizing data from the Brain Health Registry. "We are excited to partner with BU on this important study that used the Brain Health Registry to increase our understanding on the long-term effects of repetitive head impacts and TBI," said Michael Weiner, MD, PI of the Brain Health Registry and professor-in-residence in radiology and biomedical imaging, medicine, psychiatry and neurology at UCSF. "The Brain Health Registry is a novel and exciting resource for both the scientific community and the general public. It allows for large-scale recruitment, screening and study of dementia, and more than 60,000 individuals across the world are enrolled. It offers a way for the general public to track their thinking, memory, mood, and behavior over time, and also serves as a readiness registry for future research and clinical trials of prevention and treatment." You can visit the BHR here: http://bit.ly/brainhealthreg.

###

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, grant numbers U01NS093334; K23AG046377; K23NS102399; P30AG013846.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for 

SYSTEMIC RACISM

SNAP work requirements put low-income Americans at risk

Work requirements will disproportionately affect Black working-age adults and harm people with disabilities, new study says

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY

 

WASHINGTON, DC (June 26, 2020) - When work requirements for a federal food safety-net program start again, many low-income Americans will lose benefits - and Black adults will be hardest hit, according to a study published today. In addition, some disabled people will lose these crucial food assistance benefits.

The authors point out that the loss of food assistance would damage the health of low-income people, who suffer from high rates of COVID-19 and other serious health conditions.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in record rates of unemployment. SNAP benefits are critical to help people who have lost work get the food they need," said lead author Erin Brantley, PhD, MPH, a senior research associate at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health (Milken Institute SPH). "When work requirements for SNAP start again, history shows we can expect to see a disproportionate impact on black families."

Work requirements for Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly called the food stamp program, are temporarily paused under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act but are set to resume when the federal public health emergency ends. Separate from this action, the Trump administration issued a new rule to limit the ability that states traditionally have had to waive SNAP work requirements when unemployment is high, although a federal court has temporarily stopped implementation.

The study is the first to find that SNAP work requirements lead more Black adults to lose food assistance compared to white adults. It is also the first published research to show that SNAP work requirements cause disabled adults to lose benefits. Although SNAP work requirements exempt some people with disabilities, others may not qualify for an exemption, despite facing substantial health challenges. In some cases, disabled people may lose SNAP benefits because they cannot navigate the paperwork requirements, the authors point out.

Brantley and her colleagues at the Milken Institute SPH analyzed the impact of the requirement that low-income Americans prove that they are working - or lose SNAP benefits. The study examined what happened when many states put work requirements for SNAP into place between 2013 and 2017. The researchers found that:

• Food stamp work requirements for adults aged 18 to 49 led to a 21 percent drop in participation in the program overall;
• Black adults experienced a 23 percent loss in food assistance during that time, much larger than the 16 percent decline for white adults, likely because black workers have fewer work prospects;
• Even though the law exempts some with disabilities, there was a significant 7.8 percent drop in participation for these Americans.

The authors point out that although work requirements are paused during the public health emergency, the economic fall-out, high rates of unemployment and food insecurity could last long after the crisis is declared over.

"Our study suggests that even when the economy was strong such work requirements created disparities that harmed low-income people, especially in Black communities and people with disabilities," said Leighton Ku, director of the Center for Health Policy Research at Milken Institute SPH and co-author of the study. "The harm will be far worse when jobs are scarce during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, since high unemployment is expected to persist."

The findings also have implications for health insurance coverage. The Trump administration has encouraged states to introduce work requirements to Medicaid. Although federal courts have blocked implementation of Medicaid work requirements in some states, several states have continued to develop plans for new policies.

SNAP provides an estimated 37 million Americans with electronic vouchers to help pay for groceries. Low-income people who receive SNAP benefits have improved food security and that leads to better health, Ku and Brantley say.

###

The paper, Association of Work Requirements with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Participation by Race/Ethnicity and Disability Status, 2013-2017, was published June 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Open Network. The Commonwealth Fund supported the research.

Sexist views on education within families affect future academic choices

A UOC study has analysed academic sexism in baccalaureate programmes at Spanish secondary schools

UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)

 

According to senior researcher at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya's Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) Gender and ICT (GenTIC) research group, Milagros Sáinz, "In those cases where families have very sexist attitudes in relation to education and life, their opinions in terms of academic and other skills which boys and girls are ideally supposed to have may hold even more weight."

Despite the current lockdown being a temporary event, the researcher suggests that such circumstances may influence the decisions being made by young people with regard to their educational path in terms of their choice of courses for post-compulsory secondary or university education.

"There is a risk that young people, especially those from certain socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, will be more likely to be swayed by the opinions and experiences of their parents than they would have been prior to the health crisis," says Sáinz, who went on to add that, "They are not socializing with others, such as teachers or members of their peer groups in the same way as they were before quarantine."

In a study published in the International Journal of Social Psychology, the researcher with José Luis Martínez and Julio Meneses, also from the UOC, analysed the differences corresponding to gender in the response mechanisms of secondary school students with regard to scenarios related to academic sexism. The researchers explain that "girls are particularly likely to encounter this kind of situation, as they are more frequently faced with sexist attitudes about their abilities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects than boys."

According to the study, students whose parents had completed intermediate or higher level academic studies showed a greater predisposition to actively confronting sexist situations. "Interestingly, we observed that boys tend to use avoidance in response to scenarios of academic sexism, whereas girls are more likely to confront them or seek help from people in authority, such as teachers or family members, when it comes to this type of situation," the expert pointed out.

Boys are also affected by sexism

The study sampled 954 first-year baccalaureate students across ten schools in the metropolitan areas of Madrid and Barcelona. Sixty per cent of the students described their parents' level of academic achievement as intermediate, while 30% said that it was high and the final 10% reported a low level of education. In terms of origin, 80% of the student's parents were born in Spain.

Students were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they were presented with a series of different scenarios involving sexist attitudes towards their academic abilities and they had to state whether they would respond by: confronting the situation, asking for help or avoidance.

The students also had to indicate to what extent they agreed with five sexist statements about the academic abilities of boys and girls. In terms of their own personal experience, they also had to say whether anyone around them had ever made discouraging remarks about their abilities in STEM fields, such as mathematics, technology and physics (in the case of girls), or in languages and biology (in the case of boys).

In the words of Milagros Sáinz, "Our society tends to undervalue women's abilities with regard to highly prestigious and socially valued subjects and fields, such as science and technology. Boys, however, are used to their skills being valued above those of girls, which is also an example of sexism, albeit positive in this case, as it works in their favour."

According to the expert, this type of sexism does not mean that all boys have a greater affinity for those subject areas and they also feel frustrated and suffer its negative effects because many "do not comply with that ideal of masculinity".

The influence of parental academic achievement

In addition to gender being influential in determining the way young people tackle academic discrimination, the study also emphasizes an impact corresponding to levels of parental education.

As pointed out by Sáinz, "Gender explains the different ways of coping with academic sexism per se but the educational level of parents helps us understand the degree to which groups of students are predisposed to actively respond to such situations."

Girls whose parents had completed post-compulsory secondary education or university studies tended to respond to sexist scenarios by confronting the relevant person, whereas in boys with a similar family background, the response was often avoidance.

The study also reveals that, in some cases, the students themselves are not aware of having personally witnessed or experienced this kind of discrimination. "Girls are often exposed to academic sexism that questions their technological competence but they perceive this as being based on their own personal lack of ability and rule out pursuing it as a result," explained Sáinz, adding that, "They don't realize that this is a stereotypical belief applied to women based solely on the fact that they are women." The opposite is true for boys: their decisions and behaviours are also strongly conditioned by social and cultural expectations related to masculinity.

To prevent these kinds of imbalances, the expert stressed the importance of educating boys and girls on issues related to equality and how to deal with different academic or other types of sexist scenario; a programme that would also need to be extended to teachers and families.

###

Gender bias kept alive by people who think it's dead

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Workplace gender bias is being kept alive by people who think it's no longer an issue, new research suggests.

In the study, managers were given identical descriptions of a worker - the only difference being either a male or female name.

Most managers rated the male worker as more competent, and recommended a higher salary - an average 8% pay gap.

The "key drivers" of this gap were managers who thought bias no longer existed in their profession, while those who believed bias still existed recommended roughly equal pay.

This means holding this belief constitutes a "critical risk factor", and may be vital to identifying who in a profession is perpetuating issues of gender bias.

Two thirds of the managers who thought gender bias no longer existed were men - but female managers with this opinion undervalued female staff just as much as male managers did.

The research -by the University of Exeter, Skidmore College and the British Veterinary Association (BVA) - focussed on the veterinary profession.

"Managers who thought gender bias is no longer an issue recommended annual pay that was £2,564 ($3,206) higher for men than for women," said lead author Dr Christopher Begeny, of the University of Exeter.

"This represents an 8% gap - which closely matches the real pay gap we see in veterinary medicine.

"When you break this down, it's like going to that male employee after an hour's work and saying, 'ya know what, here's an extra two bucks - not because you're particularly qualified or good at your job, but simply because you're a man'.

"And then the next hour, you go back and give that male employee another $2, and the next hour another $2.

"And on and on, continuing to do that every hour for the next 2,000 hours of work."

The research was made up of two studies.

The first asked vets about their experiences, and showed women were more likely than men to report experiencing discrimination, and less likely to experience recognition among colleagues for their value and worth.

In the second study, managers participated in a randomised double-blind experiment, with the stated purpose of "understanding their experiences managing others".

They were each given a fictitious performance review for a veterinary surgeon.

Everyone was given an identical performance review, except that the name of the vet differed: either Mark or Elizabeth.

Managers evaluated the vet's performance/competence and indicated the salary they would advise if this employee was in their own practice.

"The resulting evaluations were systematically biased among those who thought gender bias was no longer an issue," said co-author, Professor Michelle Ryan, of the University of Exeter.

"Unsurprisingly, these biased evaluations led to lower pay recommendations for female vets.

"We have worked closely with the BVA, and when presenting these findings to managers in the veterinary profession they are often shocked and concerned."

The studies also found:

- Vets were split over whether gender bias still existed in their profession (44% said yes, 42% said no; the rest were undecided).
- Gender bias among managers who thought bias was not an issue was not only evident among those who strongly believed this, but also those who only slightly held this view.
- Because of seeing the female as less competent, managers were also less likely to advise giving her more managerial responsibilities, and less likely to encourage her to pursue important opportunities for promotion. This shows how managers' biases not only affect women's current employment situation (current pay) but can affect the entire trajectory of their career, by discouraging them from pursuing promotions.
- All of these effects held true when controlling for managers' own gender, their years of managerial experience, how long they've been in the profession, etc.
- They also held true when controlling for managers' endorsement of more overtly sexist beliefs (i.e., endorsement of hostile sexism)

Women have outnumbered men in the veterinary profession for more than a decade, so biased perceptions of women lacking competence might be expected to have disappeared.

The bias shown in this study may be a harbinger of what's to come in other professions - those that are striving to increase women's representation, perhaps thinking, erroneously, that this will resolve any issues of gender bias.

"With many professions working to increase the number of women in their ranks, companies need to be careful not to equate gender diversity with gender equality - even with equal numbers you can have unequal treatment," said Dr Begeny.

"There is no 'silver bullet' to ensure gender equality has been achieved.

"Ongoing vigilance is required, including awareness training to guard against some forms of bias.

"It is also important to have 'guardrails' that help prevent discrimination, including by removing names from job applications, which can signal the applicant's gender, and ensuring standard questions in interviews."

Dr Begeny added: "Overall, this research highlights a rather insidious paradox that can arise when individuals misperceive the level of progress made on gender equality in their profession, such that those who mistakenly think gender bias is no longer an issue become the highest risk for perpetuating it."
VIDEO
https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/235663.php?from=468614

The research received funding from the BVA and the European Research Council.

The paper, published in the journal Science Advances, is entitled: "In some professions women have become well-represented, yet gender bias persists - perpetuated by those who think it is not happening."

Global economic stability could be difficult to recover in the wake of the COVID-19, finds study

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

 

Analysis from the University of Surrey suggests that the economies of countries such as America, the United Kingdom and Germany should prepare for a long slow recovery with prolonged periods of instability.

Rates of growth across member states of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have been in decline since the 1970s, a phenomenon known as 'secular stagnation'. The average growth in gross domestic product (GDP) per capita fell from over 4 percent in the mid-1960s to little more than 1 percent in the pre-pandemic years. The International Monetary Fund expects global GDP to decline by 5 percent this year alone (2020) with a contraction of 3 percent likely even in the emerging and developing market economies.1

In a paper published by Nature, researchers from Surrey's Centre for Understanding Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) broke new research ground by applying critical slowing down (CSD) theory, typically used in physics and ecology, to analyse long-term trends in the global GDP datasets from as far back as the 1820s.2,3

CSD theory suggests that when a constrained, dynamic system is close to breaking point, its ability to recovery decreases. Fluctuations around the system's equilibrium become deeper and more pronounced because its internal stabilisation forces have weakened.

The team from CUSP found that, even before the Covid-19 crisis, many of the world's leading economies were experiencing larger slower growth cycles (recession cycles), suggesting precisely such a period of critical slowing down in the economic system. The team's analysis suggests that the added weight of the Covid-19 crisis may result in one of the weakest and most unstable recoveries in recorded history for many economies.

Professor Tim Jackson, Director of CUSP at the University of Surrey, said: "The global economy is facing one of the largest downturns since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Placing the economy on hold to prevent unfathomable human tragedy from the Covid-19 pandemic was the right decision. Trying to force our way back to economic growth now would be the wrong one. A post-growth world is the new normal.4

"It's time to rethink and remake the economic models that have been failing us for decades. The challenge is enormous. But so is the prize. CSD theory suggests that a resilient, sustainable economic system which protects the health of people and planet is now within our grasp."

###

Notes for Editors:

1. Publication in Nature Scientific Reports: Rye, C and T Jackson 2020. Using critical slowing down indicators to understand economic growth rate variability and secular stagnation. Nature Scientific Reports. Online at: http://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66996-6

2. The Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP) is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Centre hosted at the University of Surrey: https://cusp.ac.uk/slowing-down-indicators.

3. IMF Global Forecast for 2020: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/06/24/WEOUpdateJune2020

4. Further work on the Post-Growth Challenge: https://www.cusp.ac.uk/themes/aetw/tj_ee_post-growth-challenge/.

Long-term use of muscle relaxants has skyrocketed since 2005

Penn Medicine researchers found the drugs were prescribed disproportionately to older adults, often concurrently with opioids, despite warnings against this dangerous combination

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

 

PHILADELPHIA - Office visits for ongoing prescribing of skeletal muscle relaxant drugs tripled from 2005 to 2016, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Moreover, in 2016, nearly 70 percent of patients prescribed muscle relaxants were simultaneously prescribed an opioid -- a combination that has the potential to cause dangerous interactions. The researchers also found that muscle relaxants were prescribed disproportionately to older adults during this time period, despite national guidelines warning that this class of drugs should almost always be avoided in patients who are 65 and older. The results were published today in JAMA Network Open.

"There are few studies on the short-term efficacy and safety of skeletal muscle relaxants, and almost no data on their long-term effects, so it is very concerning that patients, and particularly older adults, are using these drugs for an extended period of time," said Charles E. Leonard, PharmD, MSCE, an assistant professor of Epidemiology. "Providers seem to be reaching for them despite incomplete information on their potential benefits and risks."

Skeletal muscle relaxants are drugs that were approved years ago for short-term treatment of muscle spasms and back pain, and are used today, without good evidence, to treat chronic pain and other conditions. Recommendations generally limit the use of these drugs to a maximum of three weeks, since they have not been shown to work for muscle spasms beyond that duration, and they can cause serious side effects including falls, fractures, vehicle crashes, abuse, dependence, and overdose. Due to these risks, muscle relaxants should be avoided altogether in elderly patients, according to guidelines from the American Geriatrics Society.

Despite these concerns, Leonard and his colleagues hypothesized that the growing opioid epidemic may have led clinicians to prescribe muscle relaxants as an alternative to opioids for long-term pain management.

To measure national trends in muscle relaxant prescribing, the researchers analyzed publicly-available 2005-2016 data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey. NAMCS is a U.S.-based annual survey of non-federally funded office-based physicians engaged in direct patient care. The researchers examined the total number of visits per year, and stratified counts by the muscle relaxant agent, whether the drug was newly prescribed or continued therapy, as well as the race, ethnicity, and sex of the patient, and the region of the visit.

From 2005 to 2016, the number of office visits resulting in new muscle relaxant prescriptions remained stable at approximately 6 million per year, while office visits for continued muscle relaxant drug therapy tripled -- from 8.5 million in 2005 to 24.7 million in 2016. Worryingly, older adults accounted for 22.2 percent of all muscle relaxant visits in 2016, even though this group accounted for just 14.5 percent of the U.S. population. Also of concern, in 2016, 67 percent of the continued muscle relaxant visits also recorded therapy with an opioid. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns against use of co-prescribing of these medications, because of the risk of serious side effects, including slowed or difficult breathing, and death.

"For older adults, I think the message should be to avoid using muscle relaxants, especially when we consider the side effects and increased risk of falls and fractures, and to find alternatives for pain management," said the study's first author Samantha Soprano, MPH, a research coordinator and student in Penn's Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program.

Leonard added that, in addition to potential adverse effects, muscle relaxants may not be any more effective in managing pain than medications like Tylenol or Advil. Past studies examining muscle relaxants found they were more efficacious than a placebo, but they were not compared to other therapies. Further research is needed to determine more detailed information about the effects of muscle relaxants, particularly when used for longer periods of time, since their use is so widespread, Leonard said. Additionally, doctors need better, safer options for managing patients' pain.

"Muscle relaxants' place in therapy is really limited. Based on most guidelines, they're normally reserved as second- or third-line therapies," Leonard said. "Our findings suggest that prescribers may be reaching for these drugs sooner than that."

###

Other Penn authors on this study include Sean Hennessy, PharmD, PhD, and Warren B. Bilker, PhD. This research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Unknown currents in Southern Ocean have been observed with help of seals

IMAGE: A WEDDELL SEAL COLLECTS DATA IN THE OCEAN WHILE SWIMMING. THIS INFORMATION DOESN'T ONLY HELP MARINE SCIENCES RESEARCHERS, BUT ALSO BIOLOGIST, TO UNDERSTAND THE SEALS' HABITAT BETTER. (WITH PERMISSION: DAN... view more 

CREDIT: DAN COSTA

UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG

Using state-of-the-art ocean robots and scientific sensors attached to seals, researchers in Marine Sciences at the University of Gothenburg have for the first time observed small and energetic ocean currents in the Southern Ocean. The currents are critical at controlling the amount of heat and carbon moving between the ocean and the atmosphere - information vital for understanding our global climate and how it may change in the future.

Two new studies, one led by Associate Professor Sebastiaan Swart and the other led by Dr Louise Biddle, both working at the University of Gothenburg, use highly novel techniques to collect rare data in the ocean both under and near the sea ice surrounding Antarctica.

Ocean currents have significant effect

These papers present for the first time upper ocean currents of approximately 0.1-10 km in size. These currents, which are invisible to satellite and ship-based data, are seen to interact with strong Southern Ocean storms and with physical processes occurring under sea ice.

"Using the data collected by the seals, we're able to look at the impact these upper ocean currents have underneath the sea ice for the first time. It's a really valuable insight into what was previously completely unknown in the Southern Ocean," says Dr Louise Biddle, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg.

The winter had assumed to be a "quiet" time due to the dampening effect of sea ice on the ocean's surface. However, the two studies show that these upper ocean currents have a significant effect on the ocean during winter.

Unprecedented high-resolution measurements

Some of the findings by Sebastiaan Swart and his team gives further insight how these observed ocean currents work. Their study highlights that during times when there are no storms and winds are weak, upper ocean currents start to become much more energetic. This energy enhances the rate of ocean mixing and transport of properties, like heat, carbon and nutrients, around the ocean and into the deep ocean.

"These new ocean robots, so-called gliders, which we control by satellite for months at a time, have allowed us to measure the ocean at unprecedented high resolution. The measurements have revealed strong physical linkages between the atmosphere and ocean. It's pretty amazing we can remotely 'steer' these robots in the most far-flung parts of the world - the ocean around Antarctica - while collecting new science data," says Associate Professor Sebastiaan Swart, Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg.

Fill a critical knowledge gap

Together, these studies contribute to improving our understanding of small-scale ocean and climate processes that have impacts globally. These kinds of observations are a critical knowledge gap in the ocean that has an impact on various processes occurring at global scale, such as ecosystems and climate.

"We are excited to grow this research capability at the University of Gothenburg. This is really a world-leading direction we should be taking to collect part of our data in marine sciences," says Sebastiaan Swart.

###

The geological record of mud deposits

A study by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) confirms that the sediments had accumulated at an approximate rate of one millimetre per year in the area of the Basque Mud Patch

IMAGE: RESEARCHER IN THE UPV/EHU'S DEPARTMENT OF MINERALOGY AND PETROLOGY view more 

CREDIT: UPV/EHU

UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

   

The nature of the sediments on the Basque continental shelf is very heterogeneous. From the point of view of distribution, two clearly differentiated sectors can be picked out in terms of grain size. "In the area of Bizkaia medium to coarse-sized sands predominate, whereas on the coast of Gipuzkoa there is a predomination of deposits of very fine sand, silts and clays, currently known as the Basque Mud Patch (BMP)," explained Maria Jesus Irabien, researcher in the UPV/EHU's Department of Mineralogy and Petrology.

"This mud patch has an irregular surface area of approximately 680 km2. Metals and contaminants, in general, are more likely to build up in this type of muddy material. So if what we are aiming to do is study anthropogenic, industrial or human influence, it is necessary to explore the mud patch in the area of Gipuzkoa," said the researcher in the Harea: Coastal Geology group of the UPV/EHU.

So, as Irabien pointed out, "we analysed three cores (19-46 cm deep) from a multidisciplinary perspective that includes the analysis of various metals, foraminifera (small organisms characterised by a shell or chalky conch), pollen and various natural and artificial isotopes".

"The results obtained have made it possible to calculate that the sediments build up at an approximate rate of one millimetre per year. An increase in the concentrations of metals from the end of the 19th century onwards can also be observed, showing that the influence of industrialization and human activity taking place in the Basque Country extends to the marine environment. In the case of lead (Pb), for example, the content in the most recent samples is five times higher than in that recorded in the past. However, the foraminifera are not affected by this contamination. Finally, the pollen analysis displays a growing trend in conifers and a reduction in indigenous species (Deciduous Quercus), possibly as a result of reforestation," highlighted the researcher of the Harea: Coastal Geology group of the UPV/EHU.

"The results confirm that the influence of coastal anthropogenic activities extends to the adjacent shelf where muddy deposits are likely to act as a trap for contaminants," said Irabien.

The researcher stresses "the importance of continuing to make interpretations of this type in marine depths to get to know marine evolution from a historical perspective. It is clear that human activity is exerting a significant influence on the coast, too; the only advantage that all this has is knowing we can stop," concluded María Jesús Irabien.

###

Additional information

The Harea-Coastal Geology research group of the UPV/EHU conducts work based on a multidisciplinary geological approach (sedimentology, geochemistry, micropalaeontology, topography, radiometric dating) for the purpose of characterising processes of natural and anthropogenic origin responsible for the environmental transformation of the coastal area during the most recent climate cycle.