Antarctic Sea Ice Sinks to Record Low

By KATHRYN HANSEN, NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY MARCH 29, 2022

February 25, 2022

The long-term trend for sea ice in the south is flat, while the global trend points downward.

In February 2022, sea ice around Antarctica reached the lowest extent ever observed since the start of the satellite record in 1979. It marks the first time that the ice was observed to shrink below 2 million square kilometers.

Sea ice in southern polar waters reached its lowest extent on February 25, 2022, at 1.92 million square kilometers (741,000 square miles). That’s 190,000 square kilometers (73,000 square miles) below the previous record-low reached on March 3, 2017. Compared to the average minimum, the sea ice this year is missing an area about twice the size of California.

The map above shows the ice extent on the day of its record low. Extent is defined as the total area in which the ice concentration is at least 15 percent. The yellow outline shows the median sea ice extent for February from 1981–2010. A median is the middle value: That is, half of the extents were larger than the yellow line and half were smaller.

1978 – 2022

The 2021-2022 melting season began earlier than usual, after the ice reached its seasonal maximum extent on September 1, 2021, and then quickly declined through the austral spring and summer. According to Walt Meier, a sea ice researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, winds were the main reason for the low ice conditions this year. He explained that the winds around the continent were “much stronger than normal,” which quickly pushed ice north into warmer waters where it melted. An exception was in the Weddell Sea, where winds pushed the ice edge south.

Now, one month after sea ice reached its annual minimum, Meier said that the rate of growth looks normal. Even the heatwave that sent Antarctica’s air temperatures soaring in the third week of March does not seem to have slowed the growth. “It is really the ocean temperatures that count,” Meier said, “and a brief heat wave won’t affect things too much in that regard.”

It remains to be seen how much ice will regrow this year. While it is common for Antarctic sea ice to melt nearly all the way back to the coastline during the austral summer, the ice grows unconstrained through autumn and winter. After months of growth (February to September), new sea ice typically spans an area of ocean about twice the size of the continental United States.

1978 – 2022

From year to year, Antarctic sea ice can be highly variable; since 2013 it has reached its highest high and its lowest low since record keeping began. A surge of sea ice growth in 2014 and 2015 enhanced a small upward trend in the long-term record. But over the past seven years, sea ice has generally been at or below average, including record-low minimums in 2017 and 2022. The long-term trend now appears flat, and because of the variability, is not considered statistically significant.

In contrast, sea ice in the Arctic shows a clear downward trend. That means that globally, the planet is losing sea ice. “Overall, for the Arctic and Antarctic combined,” Meier said, “the trend is definitely still downward.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using data from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Ice Shelf Completely Disintegrates in East Antarctica

By KATHRYN HANSEN, NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY MARCH 29, 2022

The shelf’s disintegration in March 2022 has reshaped a landscape where coastal glacial ice was once thought to be stable.

It is relatively common for ice shelves in Antarctica to spawn icebergs. It is less common for an ice shelf to completely disintegrate. In March 2022, an ice shelf in East Antarctica did both. The collapse has reshaped a part of the Antarctic landscape where coastal glacial ice was once thought to be stable.

January 9, 2022

March 23, 2022

The change happened fast. At the start of March 2022, the floating shelf fed by the Glenzer and Conger glaciers was still intact. By the middle of the month, it had fallen apart. This image pair (above), acquired by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8, shows the shelf before and after it disintegrated.

“The whole shelf collapsed in just around two weeks,” said Christopher Shuman, a University of Maryland, Baltimore County, glaciologist based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. The icy remnants of both glacial shelf ice and adjacent sea ice dispersed from the waters around Bowman Island within weeks. “All of this took less than a month,” Shuman said. “It was quite the blowout.”

February 22 – March 21, 2022

The progression of the collapse is visible in the image series above. Images were acquired with the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites.

The first image shows the ice shelf floating on the Mawson Sea on February 22, 2022, prior to the collapse. Fast ice—a type of sea ice that becomes “fastened” to the edges of ice shelves, coastlines, and icebergs—is also part of the mix. For two years prior to this image, the shelf was already in a state of decline. According to Catherine Walker of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the shelf was losing ice at an average rate of about 1 square kilometer per day through the natural process of iceberg calving.

But in early March 2022, the shelf in front of the Glenzer Glacier calved a substantial iceberg. Named C-37, the berg initially measured about 144 square kilometers (56 square miles). A few pieces broke off, such that C-37 measured about 81 square kilometers on March 12 when MODIS acquired the second image in the series. The substantial loss of ice meant the shelf disconnected from Bowman Island. (Note that some sea ice remained attached to the island.)

“Without being supported by a land anchor, the ice shelf was destabilized and primed to collapse,” said Jonathan Wille, a postdoctoral researcher at the Université Grenoble Alpes.

According to Wille, an atmospheric river on March 15 appears to have triggered the shelf’s final collapse. The weather system—which caused temperatures in eastern Antarctica to soar 40 degrees Celsius above normal—also enhanced ocean swells and amplified winds near the vulnerable shelf. This likely caused the ice in front of Conger Glacier to break apart and quickly disperse.

The third MODIS image above shows the area on March 16 after the final collapse. The event spawned Iceberg C-38, which at the time measured about 415 square kilometers (160 square miles). The final image in the series shows the crumbled shelf ice and fast ice as it dispersed in the sea on March 21.

The loss of an ice shelf is problematic because it can indirectly contribute to sea level rise. “Ice shelves are essentially the ‘safety band’ holding up the rest of the Antarctic Ice Sheet,” Walker said. When they collapse, the ice behind them can more quickly flow into the ocean. “And that is what raises sea levels.”

By Antarctic standards, the ice shelf and glaciers that it held back are relatively small, so the impacts from the collapse are expected to be minimal. Scientists are more concerned about the location of the collapse.

“All of the previous collapses have taken place in West Antarctica, not East Antarctica, which until recently has been thought of as relatively stable,” Walker said. “This is something like a dress rehearsal for what we could expect from other, more massive ice shelves if they continue to melt and destabilize. Then we’ll really be past the turnaround point in terms of slowing sea level rise.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

 Missing Link: Global Warming Speeds Up Currents in the Ocean’s Abyss

By UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY MARCH 29, 2022

Circulation of the global ocean. Credit: NASA

Finding could help refine climate modeling.

University of Sydney scientists have used the geological record of the deep sea to discover that past global warming has sped up deep ocean circulation. This is one of the missing links for predicting how future climate change may affect heat and carbon capture by the oceans.

University of Sydney scientists have used the geological record of the deep sea to discover that past global warming has sped up deep ocean circulation.

This is one of the missing links for predicting how future climate change may affect heat and carbon capture by the oceans: more vigorous ocean currents make it easier for carbon and heat to be ‘mixed in’.

“So far, the ocean has absorbed a quarter of anthropogenic CO₂ and over 90 percent of the associated excess heat,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Adriana Dutkiewicz from the EarthByte group in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney.

Microscopic marine organisms called plankton use this dissolved carbon to build their shells. They sink down to the seabed after they die, sequestering the carbon. These sedimentary deposits form the Earth’s largest carbon sink.

The authors note that climate observations and models have been used alternatively to argue that deep ocean circulation may be slowing down or speeding up during global warming. This inconsistency is a problem for modeling future climate trends and the new study, published today in the leading journal Geology, helps resolve this controversy.

“The satellite data typically used to inform ocean models only cover a few decades, leading to a poor understanding of longer-term ocean variability. This prompted us to look at the deep-sea geological record to decipher these changes,” Dr. Dutkiewicz said.

Scientific ocean drilling data collected over half a century have generated a treasure trove from which to map deep sea currents. Dr. Dutkiewicz and co-author Professor Dietmar Müller compiled data from more than 200 drill sites to map the deep-sea sedimentary record, which can indicate current speed.

“A break in sedimentation indicates vigorous deep-sea currents, while continuous sediment accumulation indicates calmer conditions,” Professor Müller said. “Combining these data with reconstructions of ocean basins has allowed geologists to track where and when these sediment breaks occurred.”

Past global cooling led to sluggish currents

The maps indicate that over the last 13 million years as the earth progressively cooled and developed expanding inland ice caps, sediment breaks gradually became less frequent – a tell-tale sign of deep-sea circulation becoming more sluggish.

By contrast, during the ‘hothouse climate’ period immediately before that with global temperatures 3-4°C warmer than today, deep-ocean circulation was significantly more vigorous.

“Fast-forward to today, independent studies using satellite data suggest that large-scale ocean circulation and ocean eddies have become more intense over the last two to three decades of global warming, supporting our results,” Professor Müller said.

Another recent study, focused on the ocean floor around New Zealand, found that the production of seashells preserved as carbonate sediment was higher during ancient periods of climate warming, despite ocean acidification during those times.

Dr. Dutkiewicz added: “Combining their results with ours leads us to conclude that warmer oceans not only have more vigorous deep circulation but are potentially also more efficient at storing carbon.”

Yet the authors cautioned that we need to better understand how the ocean’s capacity to store heat and carbon dioxide will be affected by future warming. “A more comprehensive analysis of the geological history of ocean basins is needed to verify this,” Dr. Dutkiewicz said.

Reference: “Deep-sea hiatuses track the vigor of Cenozoic ocean bottom currents” by Adriana Dutkiewicz and Dietmar Müller, 24 March 2022, Geology.
DOI: 10.1130/G49810.1

This research was supported by the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship grant (FT190100829) and by AuScope.

 

Endangered Delicacy: Tropical Sea Cucumbers in Trouble – Critical for Healthy Ocean Ecosystems

By UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY MARCH 29, 2022

White Teatfish sea cucumber in the Southern Great Barrier Reef. Credit: Steve Purcell

Sea cucumbers are critical for healthy ocean ecosystems.

Researchers are calling for better protection of tropical sea cucumbers in the Great Barrier Reef whose numbers are dwindling due to persistent and increasing overharvesting.

New research reveals that overharvesting has put the Great Barrier Reef’s tropical sea cucumber populations in peril, with strong demand for this delicacy from East and Southeast Asia.

Several kinds of sea cucumber are harvested, mainly for Chinese consumption. The global market for sea cucumbers is estimated to be worth over USD$200 million annually.

Published in Biological Conservation, the research was led by a team from the University of Sydney and the University of Queensland.

“Known as the earthworms or vacuums of the sea, sea cucumbers are critical for reef health, helping keep the seafloor clean and productive,” said Dr. Maria Byrne, Professor of Marine Biology from the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Sydney.

“Abundant sea cucumber populations on unfished reefs process tonnes of lagoon sediments annually through their body – they are the clean sand solution.

“These animals are in peril globally and their harvest on the Great Barrier Reef is of great concern.

“Fishery data collected along Australia’s primary sea cucumber fishing ground on the Reef has shown the need for caution and regulatory changes.

“The Great Barrier Reef is home to 10 of the world’s 16 endangered or vulnerable sea cucumber species. The data shows populations of some of the highest-valued species have been dwindling due to increasing and persistent global overharvest.

Teatfish in particular peril

One fast-disappearing group of tropical sea cucumbers, known as teatfish, is of particular concern.

Teatfish are listed on CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), which provides a strong basis to restrict their harvest and export. Yet two of these species, the white teatfish and black teatfish, represented more than 20 percent of the Queensland fishery’s recent total catch.

Populations of teatfish are most at risk because of their high market value and poor reproduction. The individuals that remain on the reef fail to find a mate due to fishery removal.

“Black teatfish numbers have not recovered since their fishery was closed in 1999 due to overharvest – although the fishery reopened in 2019,” said Dr. Kenny Wolfe from the University of Queensland.

“In December 2021 we saw a ray of hope, when the federal Minister for the Environment Sussan Ley supported the CITES listing, and in recognition of their perilous state determined that black teatfish harvest would not be permitted.

“It’s a great win for one of our 10 endangered or vulnerable sea cucumbers, but further policy interventions are needed to ensure other sea cucumber populations don’t start teetering toward extinction,” he said.

Greater government protection needed

Professor Byrne said effective statutory regulation was essential for protecting sea cucumbers.

“The Great Barrier Reef sea cucumber fishery has long been operating under what’s known as a non-regulatory – and therefore a non-binding – Performance Measurement System.

“This system recommended regular assessment of sea cucumber stocks, but these weren’t done, so industry has been operating for decades without any real idea of the impact of their harvests on stock sustainability.

“Going forward it will be essential to have a statutory regulated and enforced policy framework for regular fishery independent stock assessments for all tropical sea cucumber species harvested on the Great Barrier Reef.

“Only then would we be able to assess what is a sustainable harvest and identify species-specific interventions, hopefully avoiding local extinction of these ecologically important sea cucumber species on the Great Barrier Reef.

“This is essential for the health of the reef and provides an important contribution to meeting the Australian and Queensland Governments’ Reef 2050 plan, ensuring the UNESCO “at-risk” status of the Great Barrier Reef is avoided, and for Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries to meet its latest Sustainable Fisheries Strategy.”

Reference: “Overview of the Great Barrier Reef sea cucumber fishery with focus on vulnerable and endangered species” by Kennedy Wolfe and Maria Byrne, 29 January 2022, Biological Conservation.
DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109451

 

30-Year Study Finds Eating Two Servings of Avocados a Week Linked to Lower Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

TOPICS:American Heart AssociationCardiologyHeartNutrition

By AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION MARCH 30, 2022

• A 30-year study of more than 110,000 health professionals found that participants who ate at least two servings of avocado a week had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease compared to those who rarely ate avocados.
• Replacing animal products like butter, cheese, or bacon with avocado was also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease events.

Eating two or more servings of avocado weekly was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, and substituting avocado for certain fat-containing foods like butter, cheese, or processed meats was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease events, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

Avocados contain dietary fiber, unsaturated fats especially monounsaturated fat (healthy fats) and other favorable components that have been associated with good cardiovascular health. Clinical trials have previously found avocados have a positive impact on cardiovascular risk factors including high cholesterol.

Researchers believe this is the first, large, prospective study to support the positive association between higher avocado consumption and lower cardiovascular events, such as coronary heart disease and stroke.

“Our study provides further evidence that the intake of plant-sourced unsaturated fats can improve diet quality and is an important component in cardiovascular disease prevention,” said Lorena S. Pacheco, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D.N., lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow in the nutrition department at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. “These are particularly notable findings since the consumption of avocados has risen steeply in the U.S. in the last 20 years, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

For 30 years, researchers followed more than 68,780 women (ages 30 to 55 years) from the Nurses’ Health Study and more than 41,700 men (ages 40 to 75 years) from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. All study participants were free of cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke at the start of the study and living in the United States. Researchers documented 9,185 coronary heart disease events and 5,290 strokes during more than 30 years of follow-up. Researchers assessed participants’ diet using food frequency questionnaires given at the beginning of the study and then every four years. They calculated avocado intake from a questionnaire item that asked about the amount consumed and frequency. One serving equaled half of an avocado or a half cup of avocado.

The analysis found:

• After considering a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors and overall diet, study participants who ate at least two servings of avocado each week had a 16% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and a 21% lower risk of coronary heart disease, compared to those who never or rarely ate avocados.
• Based on statistical modeling, replacing half a serving daily of margarine, butter, egg, yogurt, cheese or processed meats such as bacon with the same amount of avocado was associated with a 16% to 22% lower risk of cardiovascular disease events.
• Substituting half a serving a day of avocado for the equivalent amount of olive oil, nuts and other plant oils showed no additional benefit.
• No significant associations were noted in relation to stroke risk and how much avocado was eaten.

The study’s results provide additional guidance for health care professionals to share. Offering the suggestion to “replace certain spreads and saturated fat-containing foods, such as cheese and processed meats, with avocado is something physicians and other health care practitioners such as registered dietitians can do when they meet with patients, especially since avocado is a well-accepted food,” Pacheco said.

The study aligns with the American Heart Association’s guidance to follow the Mediterranean diet – a dietary pattern focused on fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, fish and other healthy foods and plant-based fats such as olive, canola, sesame and other non-tropical oils.

“These findings are significant because a healthy dietary pattern is the cornerstone for cardiovascular health, however, it can be difficult for many Americans to achieve and adhere to healthy eating patterns,” said Cheryl Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., FAHA, chair of the American Heart Association’s Council on Epidemiology and Prevention.

“We desperately need strategies to improve intake of AHA-recommended healthy diets — such as the Mediterranean diet — that are rich in vegetables and fruits,” said Anderson, who is professor and dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego. “Although no one food is the solution to routinely eating a healthy diet, this study is evidence that avocados have possible health benefits. This is promising because it is a food item that is popular, accessible, desirable and easy to include in meals eaten by many Americans at home and in restaurants.”

The study is observational, so a direct cause and effect cannot be proved. Two other limitations of the research involve data collection and the composition of the study population. The study analyses may be affected by measurement errors because dietary consumption was self-reported. Participants were mostly white nurses and health care professionals, so these results may not apply to other groups.

Reference: 30 March 2022, Journal of the American Heart Association.
10.1161/JAHA.121.024014

Co-authors are Yanping Li, Ph.D.; Eric B. Rimm, Sc.D.; JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., Dr.P.H.; Qi Sun, M.D., Sc.D., M.M.S.; Kathryn Rexrode, M.D., M.P.H.; Frank B. Hu, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.; and Marta Guasch-Ferré, Ph.D.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health and the Harvard Chan Yerby Fellowship at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Chemical Found in Broccoli Shown To Slow Growth of COVID-19 and Common Cold Viruses

By JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE MARCH 26, 2022

A Johns Hopkins Children’s Center-led study in mice and lab-grown cells finds sulforaphane could help prevent and treat illnesses caused by certain coronaviruses, including COVID-19.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center report evidence from lab experiments that a chemical derived from a compound found abundantly in broccoli and other cruciferous plants may offer a potentially new and potent weapon against the viruses that cause COVID-19 and the common cold. COVID-19 has already killed more than 6 million people worldwide, and studies have shown that common colds cost an estimated economic loss of $25 billion in the U.S. alone each year.

In a study described on March 18, 2022, in the Nature journal Communications Biology, the scientists showed that sulforaphane, a plant-derived chemical, known as a phytochemical, already found to have anti-cancer effects, can inhibit the replication of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and another human coronavirus in cells and mice.

While the results are promising, the researchers caution the public against rushing to buy sulforaphane supplements available online and in stores, noting that studies of sulforaphane in humans are necessary before the chemical is proven effective, and emphasizing the lack of regulation covering such supplements.

Sulforaphane’s natural precursor is particularly abundant in broccoli, cabbage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. First identified as a “chemopreventive” compound by a team of Johns Hopkins scientists decades ago, natural sulforaphane is derived from common food sources, such as broccoli seeds, sprouts, and mature plants, as well as infusions of sprouts or seeds for drinking. Previous studies, including those at Johns Hopkins Medicine, have shown sulforaphane to have cancer and infection-prevention properties by way of interfering with certain cellular processes.

“When the COVID-19 pandemic started, our multidisciplinary research teams switched our investigations of other viruses and bacteria to focus on a potential treatment for what was then a challenging new virus for us,” says Children’s Center microbiologist Lori Jones-Brando, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the senior author of the paper. “I was screening multiple compounds for anti-coronavirus activity and decided to try sulforaphane since it has shown modest activity against other microbial agents that we study.” The researchers used purified, synthetic sulforaphane purchased from commercial chemical suppliers in their experiments.  

In one experiment, the research team first exposed cells to sulforaphane for one to two hours before infecting the cells with SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronavirus, HCoV-OC43. They found that low micromolar (µM) concentrations of sulforaphane (2.4–31 µM) reduced the replication by 50% of six strains of SARS-CoV-2, including the delta and omicron variants, as well as that of the HCoV-OC43 coronavirus. The investigators also observed similar results with cells that had been previously infected with the viruses, in which the protective effects of sulforaphane were seen even with an already established virus infection.

The group also examined the effects of sulforaphane when combined with remdesivir, an antiviral medication used to shorten the recovery of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 infections. In their findings, remdesivir inhibited 50% of the replication of HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 at 22 µM and 4 µM, respectively. Further, the research team reports that sulforaphane and remdesivir interacted synergistically at several combination ratios to reduce by 50% the viral burden in cells infected with HCoV-OC43 or SARS-CoV-2. In this context, synergism means that lower doses of both sulforaphane (for example, 1.6–3.2 µM) and remdesivir (for example, 0.5–3.2 µM), when combined, are more effective against the viruses than either applied alone.

“Historically, we have learned that the combination of multiple compounds in a treatment regimen is an ideal strategy to treat viral infections,” says Alvaro Ordonez, M.D., the first author of the paper and an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The fact that sulforaphane and remdesivir work better combined than alone is very encouraging.”

The researchers then conducted studies in a mouse model of SARS-CoV-2 infection. They found that giving 30 milligrams of sulforaphane per kilogram of body weight to mice before infecting them with the virus significantly decreased the loss of body weight that’s typically associated with virus infection (7.5% decrease). Further, the pretreatment resulted in a statistically significant decrease in both the viral load, or amount of virus, in the lungs (17% decrease) and upper respiratory tract (9% decrease) as well as the amount of lung injury (29% decrease) compared with infected mice that were not given sulforaphane. The compound also decreased inflammation in the lungs, protecting the cells from a hyperactive immune response that seems to be one of the driving factors that has caused many people to die from COVID-19.

“What we found is that sulforaphane is antiviral against HCoV-OC43 and SARS-CoV-2 coronaviruses while also helping control the immune response,” Ordonez says. “This multifunctional activity makes it an interesting compound to use against these viral infections, as well as those caused by other human coronaviruses.”

The team plans to conduct studies in humans to evaluate if sulforaphane can be effective in preventing or treating these infections.

“Despite the introduction of vaccines and other medications that can have side effects, effective antiviral agents are still necessary to prevent and treat COVID-19, particularly considering the potential effects of new coronavirus variants arising in the population,” Jones-Brando says. “Sulforaphane could be a promising treatment that is less expensive, safe, and readily available commercially.”

Reference: “Sulforaphane exhibits antiviral activity against pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal HCoV-OC43 coronaviruses in vitro and in mice” by Alvaro A. Ordonez, C. Korin Bullen, Andres F. Villabona-Rueda, Elizabeth A. Thompson, Mitchell L. Turner, Vanessa F. Merino, Yu Yan, John Kim, Stephanie L. Davis, Oliver Komm, Jonathan D. Powell, Franco R. D’Alessio, Robert H. Yolken, Sanjay K. Jain and Lorraine Jones-Brando, 18 March 2022, Communications Biology.
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-022-03189-z

Along with Jones-Brando and Ordonez, other Johns Hopkins Medicine authors of the paper include C. Korin Bullen, Andres F. Villabona-Rueda, Elizabeth A. Thompson, Mitchell L. Turner, Vanessa F. Merino, Yu Yan, John Kim, Stephanie L. Davis, Oliver Komm, Jonathan D. Powell, Franco R. D’Alessio, Robert H. Yolken and Sanjay K. Jain.

The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Mercatus Center, the Center for Infection and Inflammation Imaging Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Stanley Medical Research Institute.

Jones-Brando, Ordonez, Yolken and Jain are co-inventors on a pending patent application (USPA 22 719 #63/142,598), “Methods for inhibiting coronaviruses using sulforaphane” filed by The Johns Hopkins University. All other authors have no competing interests

Heart Healthy Food: Eating Cranberries Daily Improves Cardiovascular Health

By KING'S COLLEGE LONDON MARCH 25, 2022

A new clinical trial found daily consumption of cranberries for one month improved cardiovascular function in healthy men.

The new study, published on March 22, 2022, in Food & Function, included 45 healthy men who consumed whole cranberry powder equivalent to 100g of fresh cranberries per day (9 g powder) or a placebo for one month. Those consuming cranberry had a significant improvement in flow-mediated dilation (FMD), which signals improvement of heart and blood vessel function. FMD is considered a sensitive biomarker of cardiovascular disease risk and measures how blood vessels widen when blood flow increases.

Dr. Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, Senior Lecturer in Nutrition at the Department of Nutritional Sciences at King’s College London and senior author of the study, said: “The increases in polyphenols and metabolites in the bloodstream and the related improvements in flow-mediated dilation after cranberry consumption emphasize the important role cranberries may play in cardiovascular disease prevention. The fact that these improvements in cardiovascular health were seen with an amount of cranberries that can be reasonably consumed daily makes cranberry an important fruit in the prevention of cardiovascular disease for the general public.”

Low consumption of fruits and vegetables is one of the top modifiable risk factors associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Growing evidence continues to link the polyphenols from berries with heart health benefits. Cranberries are rich in unique proanthocyanidins that have distinct properties compared to polyphenols found in other fruits.

This study explored whole cranberry freeze-dried powder, equivalent to 100g of fresh cranberries, and its impact on cardiovascular health. The results demonstrated that consumption of cranberries as part of a healthy diet can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by improving blood vessel function.

An initial pilot study was completed with five healthy young men to confirm the biological activity of the whole cranberry freeze-dried powder. The pilot concluded that cranberry consumption increased FMD and confirmed dosing. The main study was a gold standard study design examining 45 healthy men each consuming two packets of whole cranberry freeze-dried powder equivalent to 100g of fresh cranberries, or a placebo, daily for one month. The study found significant improvements in FMD two hours after first consumption and after one month of daily consumption showing both immediate and chronic benefit. In addition, metabolites were also identified and predicted the positive effects seen in FMD. These results conclude that cranberries can play an important role in supporting cardiovascular health and good blood vessel function.

Dr. Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Surrey and co-author of the study said: “Our findings provide solid evidence that cranberries can significantly affect vascular health even in people with low cardiovascular risk. This study further indicates that specific metabolites present in blood after cranberry consumption are related to the beneficial effects.”   

Reference: “Daily consumption of cranberry improves endothelial function in healthy adults: a double blind randomized controlled trial” by Christian Heiss, Geoffrey Istas, Rodrigo P. Feliciano, Timon Weber, Brian Wang, Claudia Favari, Pedro Mena, Daniele Del Rio and Ana Rodriguez-Mateos, 22 March 2022, Food & Function.
DOI: 10.1039/D2FO00080F

The study was supported by The Cranberry Institute, the Research Committee of the Medical Faculty of Heinrich-Heine University Dusseldorf and a Susanne Bunnenberg Heart Foundation grant to Dusseldorf Heart Centre. For more information about the Cranberry Institute, along with the health benefits of cranberries and current scientific research,

‘Vagina Obscura’ shows how little is known about female biology

A new book chronicles how scientists are finally giving proper attention to female health and anatomy

Vagina Obscura reviews the biology of female organs, including the vagina, uterus and ovaries, and how scientists are filling in the gaps in knowledge.
JASENKA ARBANAS/MOMENT/GETTY IMAGES


By Erin Garcia de Jesús
MARCH 29, 2022 


Vagina Obscura
Rachel E. Gross
W.W. Norton & Co., $30

More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates, the Greek physician often considered the father of modern medicine, identified what came to be known as the clitoris, a “little pillar” of erectile tissue near the vagina’s entrance. Aristotle then noticed that the seemingly small structure was related to sexual pleasure.

Yet it wasn’t until 2005 that urologist Helen O’Connell uncovered that the “little pillar” was just the tip of the iceberg. The internal parts of the organ reach around the vagina and go into the pelvis, extending a network of nerves deeper than anatomists ever knew.

It took millennia to uncover the clitoris’s true extent because sexism has long stymied the study of female biology, science journalist Rachel E. Gross argues in her new book, Vagina Obscura. Esteemed men of science, from Charles Darwin to Sigmund Freud, viewed men as superior to women. To be male was to be the ideal standard. To be female was to be a stunted version of a human. The vagina, the ancient Greeks concluded, was merely a penis turned inside out, the ovaries simply interior testicles.

Because men mostly considered women’s bodies for their reproductive capabilities and interactions with penises, only recently have researchers begun to truly understand the full scope of female organs and tissues, Gross shows. That includes the basic biology of what “healthy” looks like in these parts of the body and their effects on the body as a whole.

Vagina Obscura itself was born out of Gross’ frustration at not understanding her own body in the wake of a vaginal infection. After antibiotics and antifungal treatments failed due to a misdiagnosis, her gynecologist prescribed another treatment. As Gross paraphrases, the doctor told her to “shove rat poison up my vagina.” The infection, it turned out, was bacterial vaginosis, a hard-to-treat, sometimes itchy and painful condition caused by an overgrowth of bacteria that normally reside in the vagina. (The rat poison was boric acid, which is also an antiseptic. “It’s basically rat poison,” the doctor said. “You’re going to see that on the internet, so I might as well tell you now.”)

The book’s xploration of female anatomy begins from the outside in, first traversing the clitoris’s nerve-filled external nub to the vagina, ovaries and uterus. The last chapter focuses on gender affirmation surgery, detailing how physicians have transformed the field for transgender people. (Gross is up-front that words such as women and men create an artificial binary, with seemingly more objective terms like “male” and “female” not performing much better in encompassing humankind’s diversity, including intersex and transgender people.)

Throughout this tour, Gross doesn’t shy away from confronting the sexism and prejudices behind controversial ideas about female biology, such as vaginal orgasms (versus coming from the clitoris) and the existence of the G-spot (SN: 4/25/12). Both “near-mystical” concepts stem from the male perspective that sexual pleasure should be straightforward for women, if only men could hit the right spot. Nor are the more appalling offenses swept under the rug, including racism, eugenics and female genital cutting. Footnotes throughout the book detail Gross’ efforts to navigate controversial views and stigmatizing or culturally charged terminology.

To lift readers’ spirits, she finds the right spots to deliver a dose of wry humor or a pun. She also shares stories of often forgotten researchers, such as lab technician Miriam Menkin, who showed in 1944 that in vitro fertilization is possible (SN: 8/12/44). Yet Menkin’s role in describing the first instance of a human egg being fertilized in a lab dish has largely been erased from IVF’s history (SN: 6/9/21). There’s also plenty of opportunity to marvel at the power of the female body. Despite the long-held notion that a person is born with all the eggs they’ll ever have, for example, researchers are now discovering the ovary’s regenerative properties.

Studying female bodies more closely could ultimately improve quality of life. Chasing cells capable of producing more eggs might bring about discoveries that could restore the menstrual cycle in cancer patients rendered infertile by chemotherapy or make menopause less miserable. Patients with endometriosis, a painful disorder in which uterine tissue grows outside the uterus, are often dismissed and their symptoms downplayed. Some doctors even recommend getting pregnant to avoid the pain. But people shouldn’t have to suffer just because they aren’t pregnant. Researchers just haven’t asked the right questions yet about the uterus or endometriosis, Gross argues.

Vagina Obscura reinforces that female bodies are more than “walking wombs” or “baby machines.” Understanding these organs and tissues is important for keeping the people who have them healthy. It will take a lot of vagina studies to overcome centuries of neglect, Gross writes. But the book provides a glimpse into what is possible when researchers (finally) pay attention.

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About Erin Garcia de Jesús
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Erin I. Garcia de Jesus is a staff writer at Science News. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Washington and a master’s in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.