Led by Scientists at Lawson Health Research Institute’s Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotic Research, this study provides the first clinical evidence that a probiotic yogurt can be used to reduce the deadly health risks associated with mercury and arsenic.

Environmental toxins like mercury and arsenic are commonly found in drinking water and food products, especially fish. These contaminants are particularly high in areas where mining and agriculture are prevalent, and in the developing world where regulations for industrial activities are limited or poorly enforced.

Even at low levels, chronic exposure to heavy metals has been linked to certain cancers and delayed neurological and cognitive development in children. Yet in Canada, 15% of reproductive-aged women possess mercury levels that pose a high risk for neurodevelopmental abnormalities in their children.

Lactobacillus

Research suggests some naturally occurring bacteria in the body can influence toxic metal levels. Lactobacillus rhamnosus GR-1 is a probiotic strain that has already been used safely and effectively in yogurt in Canada with positive immune benefits. Previous lab research at Lawson showed it can also bind to heavy metals, but clinical research was needed to confirm whether this mechanism would prevent the body from absorbing them.

In the study, Dr. Gregor Reid, a Scientist at Lawson and Western University, and Jordan Bisanz and Megan Enos, trainees at Lawson and graduate students at Western, assessed 44 school-aged children and 60 pregnant women living in Mwanza, Tanzania near Lake Victoria. This area is known for having particularly high environmental pollution.

Tanzania is also home to a network of community yogurt kitchens previously set up with the scientists to provide a locally-sourced, low-cost source of nutrition. The goal of the study was to assess existing metal levels in the environment and participants’ bodies, map their natural bacteria to identify any potential links to metal absorption, and determine whether the probiotic-supplemented yogurt could influence metal absorption.

The probiotic protects

The scientists found mercury and lead levels were up to seven times higher than what is typically found in Canadian children. Silver cyprinids, small fish consumed widely in the region, were found to contain especially high levels of mercury and arsenic. DNA sequencing identified two bacteria present in children with the highest concentrations of heavy metals, suggesting the presence of these bacteria may be linked to metal absorption.

After consuming the probiotic-supplemented yogurt, the children showed positive, but not statistically effective, results. The pregnant women showed more dramatic outcomes. The probiotic yogurt protected them from further uptake of mercury by up to 36% and arsenic by up to 78%.

“The findings are exciting for many reasons,” says Dr. Reid, senior author on the publication. “First, they show a simple fermented food, easily made by resource disadvantaged communities, can provide benefits in addition to nutrition and immunity. Second, the results are relevant for many parts of the world, including Canada, where exposure to these toxins occurs daily. Finally, it confirms more attention needs to be paid to these toxins, especially in children and pregnant women.”

The study is published today in mBio, the journal of the American Society for Microbiology

Obesity and weight control was a hot topic at the 2014 Experimental Biology meeting. Because of their effect on satiety, fermented dairy products, and particularly yogurts, could be an interesting option for loosing weight.

This study evaluated the association of several dairy products with the incidence of hip fractures in 830 men and women from the Framingham Original Cohort. Participants with milk intakes of between 1 and 7 servings a week or higher (≥7 servings/wk) tended to have a 42% and 39% lower risk of hip fracture respectively than those with low intake (≤1 serving/wk).

A similar threshold was observed for milk + yogurt intake. These associations were further attenuated after adjustment for femoral neck bone mineral density.

Source: Sahni, Shivani et al. Journal of bone and mineral research Volume: 29, Issue: 8, Pages: 1756-62, DOI:10.1002/jbmr.2219, Published: 2014-Aug

This has been demonstrated by the molecular and cellular biology researchers at the Max Planck Institute who have managed to block neuron degeneration in the C. elegans worm by adding these compounds. This research has recently been published in the Biology Open journal. Parkinson’s disease affects the neurons in the substantia nigra or “black substance” of the brain. Their mitochondrial activity shuts down and the brain cells die. The DJ-1 gene, originally suspected to be carcinogenic, is now proven to be linked to Parkinson’s disease.

Its main function is to purify the organism of the toxic by-products of mitochondrial metabolism. Its derivatives, D-lactate and glycolate, allow increased mitochondrial activity to be maintained and thus prevent the degeneration of neurons linked to Parkinson’s disease.

Further research is required to better understand how these two substances produce these curative and preventive effects but a project has been set up to develop a yogurt that is enriched with D-lactate, thereby protecting against Parkinson’s. The authors conclude that it is also “very tasty”.

Source: Toyoda Y et al. Biology Open July 25, 2014 doi: 10.1242/bio.20149399

Recent research indicates that increasing consumption of dairy foods may have the potential to lower the prevalence of global and abdominal obesity.

This cross-sectional study investigated whether dairy food consumption was associated with the prevalence of global and abdominal obesity in the 1352 participants in the ‘Observation of Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Luxembourg’ survey.

Total dairy intake was inversely associated with the likelihood of global obesity (-49%). But above all it is the consumption of milk and full-fat dairy products that, in this population, reduces long term weight gain in the highest consumers.

Participants in the highest tertile of full-fat dairy intakes (milk, cheese, yogurt) had a significantly lower likelihood of being obese (-45%) or displaying abdominal obesity (-35%), compared with those in the lowest intake tertile, after full adjustment for confounding factors.

Source: Crichton GE1, Alkerwi A2. Nutr Res. 2014 Jul 30. pii: S0271-5317(14)00121-3. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2014.07.014. [Epub ahead of print]

Asian populations are not getting enough calcium. A series of studies is currently drawing attention to the benefits of milk and dairy products in relation to diseases that are gaining prevalence in Asia as well and do not only affect other continents: osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, etc. This study investigates the association between dairy products and calcium intake and obesity in 7173 Korean adults aged 19-64 with a relatively low intake of dairy products.

Results show that a higher frequency of dairy product intake including milk and yogurt was associated with a 37% lower incidence of obesity. Higher calcium intake from dairy products as well as total dietary calcium intake was associated with a 17% decreased incidence of obesity. The associations appeared to be stronger in women than in men.

Even though dairy product intake was much lower than that in Western countries, this data suggests that high consumption of dairy products is associated with a lower prevalence of obesity and that calcium in dairy products may be one of the components contributing to the association in Korean adults.

Source: Lee HJ | Cho JI | Lee HS | Kim CI | Cho E. PLoS One 2014; 9(6): e99085.

Metabolic syndrome, characterized by abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and hyperglycaemia, affects 34 percent of the U.S. adult population. MetS has been demonstrated to be affected by dietary components. Epidemiological data generally shows that there is an inverse correlation between dairy consumption and metabolic syndrome.

Clinical studies have also shown associations between increased dairy intake and the lowering of one or several parameters of metabolic syndrome including weight and waist circumference, blood pressure, dyslipidemia and hyperglycaemia. Additional benefits of dairy have been found in the form of maintaining vascular function and decreasing hyperglycaemia and inflammation, as well as reductions in type 2 diabetes.

Several of the components of dairy products may explain how they protect the heart and metabolism. For example, calcium has been postulated to reduce body weight by modulating vitamin D concentrations in plasma and therefore attenuating intracellular effects of calcium in activating genes involved in fatty acid synthesis and reducing those involved in lipolysis.

Peptides present in milk have been associated with the inhibition of the angiotensin-converting enzyme and therefore with reductions in blood pressure. Branched chain amino acids may increase post-prandial insulin secretion and regulate plasma glucose levels, and leucine, an abundant amino acid in milk, may be responsible for decreased plasma glucose through modulation of mTOR.

Therefore, through different proposed mechanisms, dairy nutrients may target all the components of metabolic syndrome. Additionally, including about 3 servings of dairy in the diet per day only requires slight dietary modifications, making it an easy lifestyle change to maintain.

Source: Dugan CE | Fernandez ML. Yale J Biol Med 2014; 87(2): 135-147.

Milk and dairy intake was estimated in 1081 individuals aged 60 and older without dementia, using a 70-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire grouped into quartiles. Over 17 years of follow-up, 303 subjects developed all-cause dementia; 166 had Alzheimer’s disease and 98 had vascular dementia. After adjustments for age and sex, the incidence of all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia significantly decreased as milk and dairy intake level increased.

After adjusting for potential confounding factors, the linear relationship between milk and dairy intake and development remained significant only for Alzheimer’s disease. The risk of Alzheimer’s disease was also significantly lower in the second, third, and fourth quartiles of milk and dairy intake than in the first quartile. Together these results indicate that diet can and must constitute an important factor in the prevention of cognitive decline.

Source: Ozawa M et al. J Am Geriatr Soc 2014; 62(7): 1224-30.

One of three U.S. adults has hypertension and 78.6 million are clinically obese, a risk factor for the development of hypertension. Because of the strain that it puts on blood vessel walls, high blood pressure is one of the most common risk factors of stroke and an accelerator of multiple forms of heart disease, especially when paired with excess body weight.

The study, published in the American Journal of Hypertension, by researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), found participants consuming the highest amount of protein (an average of 100 g protein/day) had a 40 percent lower risk of having high blood pressure compared to the lowest intake level. In general, these beneficial effects were evident for both overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) and normal weight (BMI

“These results provide no evidence to suggest that individuals concerned about the development of HBP should avoid dietary protein. Rather, protein intake may play a role in the long-term prevention of HBP,” explained corresponding author Lynn Moore, associate professor of medicine at BUSM. “This growing body of research on the vascular benefits of protein, including this study, suggest we need to revisit optimal protein intake for optimal heart health,” she added.

Source: Buendia JR et al. Am J Hypertens (2014) doi: 10.1093/ajh/hpu157 First published online: September 6, 2014