Health News

Ironing Out the Kinks of Age: How Smoothing Cellular Wrinkles May Reverse Aging

As we age, our risk for a number of health complications increases. Neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s, potentially terminal illnesses such as cancer and heart disease and metabolic disorders such as fatty liver disease and diabetes are just a few of the health hurdles that many seniors will have to face. Scientists have long struggled with understanding the mechanisms underlying aging and its related issues. New research that suggests wrinkles in cells cause aging sheds light on this murky area and may lead to therapies that could turn off the effects of aging and combat age-related conditions.

Scientists Discover Wrinkles in Cells Cause Aging

“You can’t help getting older, but you don’t have to get old,” may have been uttered by a famed comedian, but it’s a notion that’s no laughing matter to scientists who are working to put the brakes on the aging process.

A new discovery suggests that the negative aspects of aging may be the result of “wrinkles” within cellular nuclei that prevent genes from properly functioning. The researchers believe there may be a way to smooth out those wrinkles that could stop or even reverse the aging process, leaving scientists to ponder on the possibility of a wrinkle cream for our DNA. The results of the study have been published in the journal Aging Cell.

Lumpy Membranes: How Wrinkles In Cells Cause Aging and Illness

In the new study, a team of researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine were investigating fatty liver disease, which is a condition that occurs when fat builds up within the liver. It’s normal to have some amount of fat in the liver, but too much impairs liver function. Fat accumulation in the liver can have serious health consequences. Along with an increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, too much fat in the liver can lead to liver failure and potentially even death.

Fatty liver disease affects an estimated 100 million people in the United States alone. Typically associated with an older population, the majority of cases are diagnosed in people who are between the ages of 40 and 60. Fatty liver disease is the most common cause of liver disease in Western populations, however, the exact cause and underlying mechanisms remain unclear.

During her research, senior authors of the study, Professor Irina M. Bochkis, Ph.D., discovered that the creation of liver fat occurs due to the development of wrinkles in the cell’s nucleus. The nucleus of a cell is where our DNA is stored. The team’s research demonstrates that where DNA is actually located within a cell’s nucleus is “critically important.”

These cellular wrinkles begin to develop and increase in their numbers as we age. Their presence interferes with the cell’s ability to produce DNA. Dr. Bochkis explained, “we have the same DNA in every single cell but each cell is different.” She further expounded, “so how does that work? Well, actually, certain genes need to be on in the liver and they have to be turned off in the brain, for example, and vice versa. If they’re not turned off appropriately, then you have problems.”

Under normal circumstances, when they are turned off, these genes are pushed against a membrane that surrounds the nucleus. As we get older, this membrane develops irregular lumps and wrinkles that stop genes from turning on or off as they should. According to Bochkis, “when your nuclear membrane is no longer functioning properly, it can release the DNA that’s supposed to be turned off.” She explained that in the case of fatty liver disease, this essentially results in turning liver cells into fat cells. “The liver can end up looking like Swiss cheese,” she said.

Reversing the Aging Process by Smoothing Cellular Wrinkles

So, if wrinkles in cells cause aging, what exactly causes these membrane irregularities, and is there any way to prevent and repair the damage? Similar to how a lack of the substance collagen produces wrinkles in the skin, wrinkles in the nuclear envelope stem from a lack of a particular substance. In this case, that substance is the protein lamin. Lamins are a group of cellular proteins that provide structural integrity to the membrane. The team believes that adding this protein back into the nuclear membrane will reduce the membrane wrinkles and reverse the fat cells back into healthy liver cells. The problem then becomes how to reintroduce lamins back into the cells. Bochkis and her team believe that a modified virus could be the most viable method of transporting the microscopic protein payload into place.

Modified viruses are already being used as a means of delivering other types of treatment. Dr. Bochkis believes that because of the role that the liver plays in detoxification, it would be particularly easy to do for their purposes. According to Dr. Bochkis, if this approach is successful, “you’re going to have normal cells, normal healthy cells, and they will appropriately express the genes that should be expressed… you’re going to eradicate the stuff that shouldn’t be there.”

Dr. Bochkis believes that wrinkling in the nuclear envelope is largely responsible for most age-related diseases and illnesses in other parts of the body as well. “Every time I give this talk to colleagues, they say, ‘well, do you think this is a universal mechanism?’ In my opinion, I think it is,” she said.

High-Salt Diet Kills Beneficial Gut Bacteria, Leading to Disease

Jun 29 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

A team of international researchers has found a high-salt diet reduces the population of the beneficial gut bacteria Lactobacillus. This, in turn, impacts immune cells which can lead to the development of hypertension and autoimmune disease. Probiotics may help to curb these effects.

Gut Flora and Salt-Sensitive Diseases

A high-salt diet has long been identified as a contributing factor to high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease and heart failure. When salt accumulates in the bloodstream, the body retains fluid in order to dilute the sodium. The heart and blood vessels then have to work harder to deal with the excess water, which causes the blood vessels to stiffen and can lead to cardiovascular complications and potentially death.

Higher intake of salt has also been linked to the development of stomach cancer, and it may further exacerbate osteoporosis symptoms. Previous research has shown that reducing salt intake both lowers your risk for cardiovascular disease and related deaths over the long term, but scientists are still trying to understand the mechanisms underlying these connections.

Imbalances in the gut’s microbiota have been implicated as underlying factors in systemic inflammatory conditions and immune system disruptions. Research has shown that gut bacterial imbalance may be involved in many of the same cardiovascular health problems that arise from a high-salt diet. “But so far, nobody had studied how salt affects the bacteria in the gut,” said the lead researcher of the study, Professor Dominik Müller of the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC) and Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany.

Müller and his colleagues felt that this was a deserving point of focus. According to fellow team member and ECRC researcher Dr. Nicola Wilck, “gut bacteria influence the host organism, and the immune system is also very active in the gut.” The team decided to investigate the effect that salt has on the bacterial populations of the gut to determine what changes occur and discern if those changes may be linked to the detrimental effects of a salt-laden diet. The team’s research has been published in the journal Nature. Their findings were recently presented at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester in the United Kingdom.

High-Salt Diet Kills Off Lactobacillus Populations

With their research, Müller and his team have successfully demonstrated that excess sodium decreases the Lactobacilli in our guts while raising blood pressure and increasing the number of Th17 helper cells, immune cells that stimulate inflammation, cause hypertension and are associated with autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. According to Müller, “we should start to see our gut microbiome as a viable target for treating conditions that we know are aggravated by salt, such as high blood pressure and inflammation.”

In their experimentation, the team fed mice a high-salt diet in which sodium made up 4 percent of their daily intake, compared to the 0.5 percent sodium intake of a normal diet. The team found that the higher salt intake led to a decline in the population of Lactobacillus murinus bacteria. Mice fed this diet had higher blood pressure and were also found to have increased populations of the Th-17 cells. When the mice with high blood pressure were given a probiotic which contained Lactobacillus murinus, Th-17 populations declined and the symptoms of hypertension decreased.

The researchers then decided to investigate if this effect would carry over to human subjects. The team investigated the gut microbiota of 12 healthy men who were administered six additional grams of salt, roughly doubling their sodium intake, every day over the course of two weeks. As was observed with the mice, within human test subjects, lactobacilli were sensitive to salt intake, becoming almost undetectable after 14 days. As expected, participants’ possessed higher blood pressure and an increase in the number of Th-17 helper cells in their blood. Participants who took an over-the-counter probiotic for a week prior to starting the high-salt diet retained normal blood pressure levels, and their Lactobacillus populations remained intact.

A Window Into Future Therapies

According to the researchers, “it is still unclear exactly how Th-17 cells contribute to the development of high blood pressure and other ill effects of a high-salt diet,” but they are hopeful their research will help shed light on potential treatments for salt-sensitive illnesses.

Fellow researcher, Dr. Ralf Linker from the Friedrich-Alexander University said, “multiple sclerosis may be one of the salt-sensitive diseases which we might be able to treat in the future with individually-tailored probiotics as add-on to standard immune therapies.”

While the role gut microbiota plays in our health is increasingly an important focus of research attention, there is much we still don’t know about how other organisms impact and interact with our gut flora. “Our study goes beyond just describing the changes caused by salt. We want to consider interrelated processes,” said Dr. Müller. “We can’t exclude the possibility that there are other salt-sensitive bacteria that are just as important as Lactobacillus,” he continued. “This could be the tip of the iceberg in targeting gut bacteria for treating serious illnesses.”

“We’re learning that the immune system exerts a lot of control on the body, above and beyond what we generally think of as immunity. The mechanisms by which it exerts that control are still being unraveled,” said team member Professor Eric Alm of MIT. “We hope that our findings, along with future studies, will help to shed more light on the mechanism by which a high-salt diet influences disease.”

Low Vitamin D Linked to Cancer Risk

Jun 22 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

If you’re not giving your body enough vitamin D, you may be exposing yourself to a higher risk of developing certain types of cancer. At least, that’s what the findings from two new studies have revealed. While we’re warned that too much sun exposure will raise the risk of developing skin cancer, it seems too little sunshine is just as bad for us. The vitamin D that our bodies absorb during exposure to direct sunlight has an even more positive effect on our bodies than previously thought.

Study Finds Low Vitamin D Linked to Cancer

In the past, getting enough vitamin D was recommended because it was thought to help the body maintain an overall better level of functioning, strengthening the immune system and other biological systems. More recent research has found that a good supply of vitamin D does much more than that, however. Studies have found that a deficiency of this vitamin can increase one’s risk’s of developing Parkinson’s and cardiovascular disease, as well as causing certain individuals to gain weight.

Now, a new research project which combined experts from a variety of different organizations took a look at how low levels of vitamin D were linked to cancer. Specifically, the study conducted by the American Cancer Society, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the United States National Cancer Institute looked at how vitamin D levels affected the development of bowel cancer. Also called colorectal cancer, bowel cancer is almost as widespread as skin cancer and is expected to cause more than 50,000 deaths by the end of this year.

This isn’t the first study to look at the relationship between bowel cancer and vitamin D. There have been several studies conducted independently in the past. Some research confirmed a link, while others did not find a connection between vitamin D and bowel cancer. The new collaborative study was established to find a definitive answer. The new study was the most expansive one of its kind, amassing data from subjects on three different continents. Of the group, there were 5,700 test subjects with colorectal cancer and 7,100 individuals in the control group.

The study did find a connection between low vitamin D levels and the risk of developing colorectal cancer. The study subjects were evaluated at regular intervals, about every 5.5 years, and those found to have a lower than recommended vitamin D level also had a 31 percent higher chance of developing bowel cancer. The risk did not increase in subjects with higher levels of vitamin D. While it the results seem to indicate that vitamin D does play a part in the development of bowel cancer, co-first study author Marji L. McCullough says these results shouldn’t be viewed as an indication that high vitamin D levels can actually prevent colorectal cancer.

The Correlation Between Vitamin D and Breast Cancer

In another separate study that looked at how vitamin D was linked to cancer, researchers wanted to see how the vitamin affected the development of breast cancer. The project was undertaken at the University of California’s San Diego School of Medicine and involved looking at the results of two clinical trials, alongside the pooled results of a prospective cohort study. They wanted to establish a correlation between vitamin D levels the risks of breast cancer.

The project teamed the University of California researchers with others from Creighton University, the Medical University of South Carolina and GrassrootsHealth, which is a nonprofit organization out of Encinitas, California. They looked at 3,325 subjects from clinical trials and another 1,713 individuals in the cohort study. The average study participant was a 65 year-old woman with no indication of cancer at the time the study was started.

Between 2002–2017, the participants of the study were examined every four years. The follow-up examinations looked at the risks of developing breast cancer in each individual and at the levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) in their blood serum, which is a vitamin D biomarker. The rate of breast cancer was adjusted for age, determining a rate of 512 per 100,000. The study uncovered 77 new cases of breast cancer developing in the test subjects.

Those who showed a higher concentration of the vitamin D biomarker in their blood serum had a significantly lower risk of developing breast cancer. Specifically, they found that subjects with more than 60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) of the vitamin D biomarker in their blood had just one-fifth the risk of developing breast cancer than those with only 20 nanograms per milliliter of the biomarker in their blood. While 60 ng/ml seems to be the minimum level of vitamin D we should have in our bodies, the research also found that the risks of developing breast cancer continued to drop as vitamin D levels get higher.

While vitamin D does seem to play an important role in the development of certain cancers, researchers hope to conduct more studies to learn more about the correlation. We already know that higher levels of vitamin D can reduce the risks of developing breast and bowel cancer, but that’s not the same thing as suggesting high vitamin D concentrations can prevent cancer. Future studies may give us a better idea about how much vitamin D we should have in our blood and may discover more about the vast benefits of this wonder vitamin.

Can Probiotics Protect Against Stress?

Jun 18 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

A new study adds to growing evidence confirming that probiotics can protect against stress. Researchers are studying the application of a type of good bacteria that, if successful in human trials, may result in a probiotic-based immunization to battle mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.

The Complex Link Between Gut Health and Mental Health

Over time, researchers have continued to focus their efforts on investigating the complex link between the brain and gut bacteria. In numerous studies, associations have been made between the trillions of bacteria within our digestive tracts and everything from metabolic function to mood regulation. Each new study adds to supporting evidence that our gut balance and mental health are integrally linked in a highly codependent relationship.

One study uncovered that a lack of gut bacteria altered areas of the brain associated with anxiety and depression. According to another study, disruption of gut microbial balance and the gut-brain axis has been shown to cause depression. Similarly, earlier research highlighted the fact that early life stresses altered the gut bacteria in a way that increased the risk of anxiety later in life.

The link between our guts and brains is also a two-way relationship. While a lack of, or imbalance of, beneficial bacteria in the gut can increase stress, neuroinflammation, and possibly lead to mood disorders, increasing evidence has shown that stress also bears direct, harmful impacts upon gut bacteria balance.

Given all the evidence supporting this association between our emotional wellbeing and gut bacteria, scientists are investigating methods of adjusting gut bacteria in an effort to protect us from the effects of stress.

Mycobacterium Vaccae: Probiotics Protect Against Stress

In this newest study on gut bacteria, researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder have built upon previous research investigating the soil-based bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, in which it was found that mice that were inoculated with the bacteria experienced less inflammation and presented fewer symptoms of anxiety.

In their most recent work, the research team wanted to delve deeper into this good bacteria to uncover exactly how Mycobacterium vaccae affects the brain. In order to do so, researchers injected male rats with the beneficial bacteria once a week for three weeks and took measurements of the proteins in the brain. Two major findings stood out:

The team discovered that a week after the last treatment, the inoculated rats possessed significantly higher levels of a particular anti-inflammatory protein referred to as interleukin-4 in the hippocampal region of the brain. The hippocampus plays a key role in learning and memory. An integral part of the limbic system, one of the roles of the hippocampus is the regulation of anxiety and fear responses.
In addition to increasing anti-inflammatory proteins, the researchers found that when the inoculated rats were placed into a stressful situation, the Mycobacterium vaccae bacteria decreased levels of HMGB1, a stress-induced protein that sensitizes the brain to inflammation, and increased levels of CD200R1, a receptor that preserves the anti-inflammatory state of the brain’s immune cells.

“We found that in rodents this particular bacterium, Mycobacterium vaccae, actually shifts the environment in the brain toward an anti-inflammatory state. If you could do that in people, it could have broad implications for a number of neuroinflammatory diseases,” Dr. Matthew Frank, lead author of the study and senior research associate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at CU Boulder, said in a statement.

Stress-related mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD affects one out of every four people at least once in their lives. Strong supporting evidence suggests that these stress-related disorders are at least partially caused by inflammation. “There is a robust literature that shows if you induce an inflammatory immune response in people, they quickly show signs of depression and anxiety. Just think about how you feel when you get the flu,” added Dr. Frank.

Senior study author Christopher A. Lowry, Ph.D., associate professor of integrative physiology at CU Boulder, has been studying Mycobacterium vaccae for 17 years. He explains that their findings help further illuminate the link between probiotics and mood disorders, exhibiting that probiotics help protect against stress. According to Dr. Lowry, “if you look at the field of probiotics generally, they have been shown to have strong effects in the domains of cognitive function, anxiety and fear. This paper helps make sense of that by suggesting that these beneficial microbes, or signals derived from these microbes, somehow make their way to the hippocampus, inducing an anti-inflammatory state.”

While the Mycobacterium vaccae injections have yet to see human trials, the team is hopeful that a similar method of treatment will soon be available to those at risk of developing these inflammation-induced mood disorders. “More research is necessary, but it’s possible that other strains of beneficial bacteria or probiotics may have a similar effect on the brain,” said Dr. Lowry.

Their findings have been published in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.

The Latest Breakthroughs in Gut Bacteria Research

Jun 14 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

From brain function to metabolic function, the mountains of gut bacteria research over the past few years have only just begun to reveal how the trillions of microorganisms that reside in our guts impact our health. Here’s a roundup of some of the most recent research into our gastrointestinal microbiota and its implications on health.

New Insights Into Gut Bacteria’s Role in Neurological Conditions

Scientists are working to form a better understanding of how the connection between our gut and brain affects the central nervous system. Previous studies have highlighted the fact that the gut microbiota in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) differs from the bacteria found in those without multiple sclerosis. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital have been focusing their efforts on exploring the gut-brain connection to better understand this link to multiple sclerosis. In their most recent work, the Brigham team investigated interactions between gut microbes and two particular types of glial cells, astrocytes and microglia, known to play major roles in the central nervous system.

While other studies in the field have explored how byproducts from the microorganisms living in the gut may cause brain inflammation, the team’s newest study is the first to examine how microbial byproducts may prevent inflammation. In their research, they discovered that when the microbes in the gut process tryptophan, an amino acid that is commonly associated with turkey, they produce compounds that are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and activate an anti-inflammatory pathway that restricts neurodegeneration.

The pathway in question has also been associated with both Alzheimer’s disease and glioblastoma. The team believes their research may be useful in understanding other neurologic conditions outside of multiple sclerosis.

According to Francisco Quintana, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Neurology at Harvard and one of the co-authors of the study, “it is likely the mechanisms we’ve uncovered are relevant for other neurologic diseases in addition to multiple sclerosis. These insights could guide us toward new therapies for MS and other diseases.”

The study has been published in the journal Nature. The team plans to delve deeper into the gut’s connection to neurologic conditions. Their findings may one day help guide future therapies for those suffering from neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.

“These findings provide a clear understanding of how the gut impacts central nervous system resident cells in the brain. Now that we have an idea of the players involved, we can begin to go after them to develop new therapies,” said Dr. Quintana.

Microorganisms in the Gut Trigger Antitumor Response in the Liver

While other studies suggest that the gastrointestinal microbiota influences immune response to cancer, it has not been understood if or how this occurs in the liver. Liver cancer is one of the topmost causes of cancer-related deaths in the world. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2018 alone, over 40 thousand Americans will be diagnosed, and around 30 thousand will die from some form of liver cancer. In a recent study led by scientists from National Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Research (NCI CCR) and published in the journal Science, researchers sought to better understand the relationship between gut flora, liver cancer and the body’s immune response.

The researchers discovered that when they used an antibiotic cocktail to essentially wipe out the gut microbiota, tumors in the liver were fewer and smaller, and there was a reduction of other cancers spreading to the liver.

According to study lead Tim Greten, M.D., “what we found using different tumor models is that if you treat mice with antibiotics and thereby deplete certain bacteria, you can change the composition of immune cells of the liver, affecting tumor growth in the liver. This is a great example of how what we learn from basic research can give us insight into cancer and possible treatments.”

The team investigated the immune cells in the liver to understand the underlying mechanisms behind the tumor suppression. In their research, the team demonstrated that a particular species of bacteria, Clostridium scindens, modified bile acids so that they would signal the liver to produce the CXCL16 chemokine. These signaling proteins stimulate the production of “natural killer T” (NKT) cells, which surveil the liver, reducing the growth of both primary and metastatic liver cancers. The team’s findings provide a better understanding as to the mechanisms that can lead to the development of liver cancer as well as the therapeutic approaches that may be used to treat them.

Gastrointestinal Flora Regulates Fat Stores

Obesity is becoming a growing epidemic and is the leading cause of potentially fatal health conditions like heart disease, stroke and some cancers. A new study led by scientists at King’s College London and published in the journal Nature examined just how the gut processes and stores fat throughout the body. Their findings suggest that putting on pounds is the result of diet and environment rather than genetics.

According to lead investigator Dr. Cristina Menni, “this study has really accelerated our understanding of the interplay between what we eat, the way it is processed in the gut, and the development of fat in the body, but also immunity and inflammation. We have been able to get a snapshot of both the health of the body and the complex processes taking place in the gut.”

In order to better understand how the underlying processes that occur in the gut affect fat processing and distribution, researchers analyzed the fecal metabolome in twin pairs. Their analysis revealed that the gut’s chemical processes were impacted more so by environmental factors such as diet than they were influenced by genetics.

“This new knowledge means we can alter the gut environment and confront the challenge of obesity from a new angle that is related to modifiable factors such as diet and the microbes in the gut. This is exciting, because unlike our genes and our innate risk to develop fat around the belly, the gut microbes can be modified with probiotics, with drugs or with high fiber diets,” said the study’s first author, Dr. Jonas Zierer.

Using the derived data, the researchers compiled a cross-reference of which bacteria were linked with what metabolites, creating a valuable resource that will help future researchers better understand how gut bacteria influences health.

Head of the research group, Professor Tim Spector said, “knowing that they are largely controlled by what we eat rather than our genes is great news, and opens up many ways to use food as medicine. In the future, these chemicals could even be used in smart toilets or as smart toilet paper.”

Dietary Flavonoids May Help Preserve Lung Health

Jun 01 by Ewcopywriting Leave a Comment

Flavonoids are a diverse group of plant chemicals, known as phytonutrients, that are found in most all fruits and vegetables. While flavonoids have been known to have a number of health benefits due to their antioxidant powers, new research has shown that they may also play a role in promoting lung health. As we age, lung function naturally declines. In fact, respiratory fitness, or lung health, is one of the main factors that can play a major role in determining a person’s lifespan. Consuming flavonoids on a regular basis may help protect lung health as we age by ultimately slowing down the signs of aging on our lungs.

How Aging Affects Lung Health

Aging affects the lungs just as it does all other organs, and there are four major ways in which the function of our lungs decreases as we age.

First and foremost, aging decreases airflow and gas exchange. Secondly, our vital capacity, which is the maximum amount of air that can be inhaled and exhaled in a single stretch, decreases as well, thus we become more prone to taking shallow breaths.

What’s more, the respiratory muscles that are responsible for air intake and outflow tend to become weak with growing age, further adding to our inability to breathe deeply. In addition, with exposure to air pollution, our lungs must deal with a plethora of toxins that are not meant to be inhaled. To battle these toxins, our lungs inherently possess a defense mechanism to help clean and protect itself. This defense mechanism consists of tiny, hair-like projections on the cells that line the airway, called cilia, a mucus layer that traps pathogens, and alveolar macrophages, a type of white blood cell. While this three-part respiratory defense system may seem strong, as we age, this defense mechanism weakens and becomes less effective.

Though these aging factors may not seem to pose an immediate threat, the overall lung weakness they create can result in reduced physical capacity, subjecting aging seniors to ailments such as pneumonia and other infections. In addition to older adults, smokers tend to be at the highest risk for these respiratory issues, as their lungs are already subjected to a lot of toxins.

What are Flavonoids?

Flavonoids are natural substances found in plants that are responsible for a plant’s pigmentation or color. These phytochemicals belong to the polyphenol class of chemicals. Flavonoids can be found in various parts of a plant, such as stems, fruits, flowers, bark, vegetables, roots or leaves, and are an indispensable part of many pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products and applications. Here is an excellent resource for the various groups of flavonoids.

Flavonoids Protect Lung Health

Flavonoids have many protective properties. Two of the main characteristics of flavonoids that benefit our overall health are their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidizing properties.

Here are few ways in which lung health is improved and protected by flavonoids:

They are anti-inflammatory.
When our bodies are exposed to infection or trauma, inflammation occurs. Inflammation is a defense mechanism that can be helpful to a certain extent, but when it becomes chronic it can worsen the overall condition of any organ. The anti-inflammatory properties of flavonoids help to decrease and protect against the harsh effects of inflammation. There are a wide variety of phytochemicals that fit into the flavonoid category. Among them is anthocyanin. Anthocyanin has been shown to help protect against inflammation in the lungs. As mentioned above, inflammation can pose a serious threat to the human body. Spirometry, a test which measures the volume of air inhaled and exhaled, was used extensively to find out whether flavonoids aided in increasing lung health. According to a study, the percentage of people who consumed the highest amount of the flavonoid anthocyanin through the food they ate exhibited better lung health.
They possess antioxidant properties.
While our bodies undergo stresses that result in inflammation, at the same time, our bodies are also subjected to free radical damage on a daily basis, thus these antioxidant properties battle free radicals and help neutralize their damaging effects. Our lungs often breathe in polluted air which is full of free radicals. Free radical discharge in the body tends to heavily damage the lungs in particular. As people age, their lung capacity decreases as well. In such cases, damaged lungs further lessen the amount of air that can be utilized by the body. However, regular intake of flavonoids helps to protect against the oxidative damage from free radicals, helping to preserve lung health.
Flavonoids help protect against obesity.
Many studies have proven that obesity leads to decreased air intake and reduced lung function and capacity. How can flavonoids affect obesity risk? The anti-inflammatory properties of flavonoids prevent the excess production of leptin. Leptin is a hormone which suppresses the appetite. Increased production of leptin has been linked with obesity. Flavonoids tend to decrease this hormone’s production. As people age and lung capacity naturally decreases, obesity can worsen their condition. In such cases, flavonoids are of a great benefit to aging people.
They help diabetic patients breathe better.
As if anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and healthy weight properties weren’t enough benefits, a study has proposed that diabetic patients tend to exhibit decreased air intake capacity. This decrease in pulmonary function can be mitigated by the intake of flavonoids. On the other hand, those who consume flavonoid-rich foods tend to have better vascular function and a lower risk of diabetes.

How to Reap the Health Benefits of Flavonoids

Though flavonoids are present in many fruits and vegetables, for those who do not consume enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, supplementation should be considered. In fact, a wide variety of the flavonoids that support good health are available in supplement form.

Also, green tea provides a good dose of flavonoids and has other great health benefits as well. It’s important to note that the flavonoids present in most fruits and vegetables are very sensitive in nature; when these flavonoid-rich foods are cooked, it’s possible that most of the flavonoids may be lost.