Volume 110

Depression is a common mental disorder with key symptoms such as low mood, anhedonia, cognitive impairment, and sleep disturbances. The rising prevalence of depression underscores the need to investigate its relationship with circadian rhythm, which could enhance current treatment approaches, such as light therapy and melatonin supplementation. Many individuals with depression experience insomnia, delayed sleep phase, and fragmented sleep, which is related to circadian dysfunction. Circadian rhythm is typically controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus and other external clues, such as light or meal timing. An impact on genetic bases or external factors could disrupt circadian rhythm. Epidemiological, clinical, and animal studies have revealed the bidirectional relationship between circadian disruption and depression with supporting evidence. This essay focuses on the bidirectional relationship between depression and circadian rhythm. Furthermore, this essay will discuss how clock genes, neurotransmitters, the HPA axis, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction induce depression and circadian disruption.

Show more

With the global increase in obesity and metabolic diseases becoming more pronounced, And as modern people increasingly turn their attention to healthy diets and weight management, healthy foods related to weight loss and energy metabolism have gradually become important research areas. This article aims to analyze the roles and current applications of white kidney beans, dietary fiber, and capsaicin as active ingredients in metabolism. Firstly, as a starch blocker, white kidney beans can delay the digestion and absorption of carbohydrates, inhibit the increase in blood sugar concentration, and improve the structure of the gut microbiota to prevent a decrease in microbial diversity, thus having a positive impact on metabolism. Secondly, dietary fiber not only helps promote gastrointestinal peristalsis and motility, but also significantly contributes to weight loss and health management by enhancing the production of satiety hormones, improving satiety, and promoting bowel movements. Finally, capsaicin helps optimize fat metabolism by promoting fat breakdown, enhancing satiety, stimulating energy expenditure, and reducing energy intake. In addition, capsaicin can further regulate energy metabolism by inhibiting inflammatory reactions and strengthening oxidation of fatty acids in adipose tissue and liver. Overall, these natural health ingredients have potential application value for weight loss and health management by regulating metabolic processes through multiple pathways. Future research will further explore the mechanisms of these components and their synergistic effects with other nutrients, providing theoretical support for more efficient weight loss programs.

Show more

As the world's largest developing country, China faces a severe and growing air pollution challenge. This paper reviews the current research status on the characteristics of air pollution and health risk assessment in China, comparing and analyzing various methodologies while emphasizing the importance of addressing data gaps and enhancing public health awareness. A comprehensive analysis of relevant studies reveals the distinct characteristics of air pollution in China, its associated health risks, and the urgency for policy interventions. The study also highlights limitations of the existing Air Quality Index (AQI), including its computational complexity, neglect of certain pollutants, and the predominant focus on single or few cities, specific timeframes, or isolated pollution events, which results in a lack of systematic nationwide data. To improve the accuracy of air pollution monitoring and assessment, effective policy measures must be implemented. This study proposes the adoption of health-based indices, such as the Air Quality Health Index (AHQI) and Health Risk Air Quality Index (HAQI), to better characterize air pollution and validate correlations between epidemiological data and AHQI/HAQI values. Additionally, raising public health awareness is critical, as active public participation can drive environmental protection and the adoption of green, eco-friendly lifestyles.

Show more

AN is a kind of complex psychiatric disorder which are usually characterized by serious caloric restriction, underestimated body image, and strong fear of increasing weight. This review explores the multifactor behind AN both in terms of pathology and pathophysiology. Particularly, the abnormality of reward processing circuits is analyzed in detail considering neurobiological alterations which involve neurotransmitters, hormonal disruptions, and dysfunctions. All these internal disorders are also combined with psychological distortions including self-perfectionism and external social pressures that idolize body thinness. The paper also discusses advances in treatment strategies, developing from traditional psychological therapies to newly-born neuromodulation and gut-brain axis modulation. According to recent findings, it can be concluded that symptomatic treatments cannot effectively work without other assisting therapies in the neurobiological field and those distorted social concepts. In this way, mental health is predicted to be maintained for longer time if precisive, tailored and multi-level interventions are adopted. However, it has to be admitted that there are still huge gaps between the ideal theory and the reality. It remains unclear that how neurobiological factors interact and how they are affected by temporality. More seriously, most pharmacological treatments merely manage comorbidities while do not cure those core AN symptoms. In addition, treatment adherence and high relapse rates are another two main obstacles of long-term recovery.

Show more

Aging is a complex biological process that progressively impairs cellular functionality and overall health across organisms. Transmission control mechanisms, vital for intercellular communication and organ homeostasis, are significantly affected by this decline. Current research highlights that aging disrupts ion channels, synaptic plasticity, and protein trafficking, contributing to cellular dysfunction and age-related diseases like neurodegeneration and cardiovascular issues. Advances have pinpointed molecular changes such as calcium imbalances, synaptic weakening, and protein aggregation as key drivers of these deficits. However, a comprehensive integration of these findings remains lacking. This study analyzes the molecular impact of aging on transmission control, focusing on ion channels, synaptic transmission, and protein misfolding. It reveals that aging causes calcium dysregulation in neurons, diminishes synaptic strength, and promotes toxic protein aggregates, collectively increasing disease susceptibility. The research employs experimental approaches like gene knockout models and cell culture techniques to explore these effects and potential interventions. These findings offer a valuable reference for understanding the molecular basis of aging-related diseases, laying groundwork for targeted therapies to improve health outcomes. Yet, questions persist about the interplay of these mechanisms across diverse cell types and external influences. Future research should prioritize a holistic synthesis of these molecular insights and investigate practical therapeutic applications to address age-related transmission control deficits effectively.

Show more

CVD is one of the leading causes of death in the world today, so it is important to prevent and reduce the risk of CVD. The pathogenesis of CVD is mainly caused by atherosclerosis, which leads to cardiovascular impairment, and eventually leads to hypertension, coronary heart disease and other diseases. The research mainly focuses on the pathogenesis, the development of targeted drugs, or the use of AI technology to make targeted diagnosis and combine with models to treat patients. These methods are relatively costly and not universal, and some studies have shown that diet can prevent and improve the risk of CVD to a certain extent, but the complete dietary structure and related efficacy are not explained. This article analyzes the pathogenesis, symptoms, main risk factors, and the influence of trace elements on CVD and the regulation of CVD by Mediterranean diet (MD), and obtains the results of the impact of diet on human health and the regulation of CVD by the correct dietary structure. The purpose of this study is to focus on diet, a low-cost and universal method for the prevention and treatment of CVDs, and to make further progress in dietary structure and promotion. It provides a reference for future research on healthy dietary structure, and on the issue that the MD is not prevalent on a global scale, future research can focus more on adjusting the dietary structure to make it universal.

Show more

Anguera-Tejedor, M., Garrido, G., Garrido-Suárez, B. B., Ardiles-Rivera, A., Bistué-Rovira, À., Jiménez-Altayó, F., & Delgado-Hernández, R. (2024). Exploring the therapeutic potential of bioactive compounds from selected plant extracts of Mediterranean diet constituents for cardiovascular diseases: A review of mechanisms of action, clinical evidence, and adverse effects. Food Bioscience, 62, 105487.

Show more

Coffee is a beverage that contains a variety of bioactive compounds such as caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and diterpenes that have potential benefits to human health. Due to the severe neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) and cancer, exploring new aspects of these disease's treatment like coffee’s health benefits is necessary. Recent studies have shown that coffee consumption is associated with reduced risks of stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. However, the mechanisms and interactions of these bioactive compounds are not unclear. So this study reviews the extraction methods of caffeine, chlorogenic acid, and diterpenes and their health effects. Also, this paper analyzes the antioxidant, anticancer, and neuroprotective properties of coffee with specific examples like the risk of stroke, diabetes, and several NDDs. As a result, the paper provides valuable information on the health benefits of coffee and offers support for dietary recommendations, hoping future studies could focus on exploring the long-term health impacts of coffee consumption in different populations with more specific categories.

Show more

Gut microbiome research is one of the most groundbreaking directions in the life sciences of the 21st century, and its background involves the deep integration of medicine, microbiology, immunology and systems biology. Gut microbiome research has crossed the "correlation discovery" stage and is driving the underlying logic of treatment strategy through the integration of interdisciplinary technologies. In the next decade, microbiome medicine will form a "diagnosis-intervention-monitoring" closed loop, the core of which is dynamic precision medicine targeting the microbiome. The research of personalized nutrition and precision microbiome medicine needs to be further explored. This paper mainly analyzed the relationship between intestinal microbes and host nutrition metabolism, especially the effects of different nutrient intake on intestinal microbial composition, and how intestinal microbes affect host health through metabolic processes. It is clear how to use intestinal microbes to intervene in individual health and how to use different nutrient ratios to improve individual intestinal microbes. It provides a reference for future studies on the relationship between intestinal microbes and host nutrition metabolism and the relationship between intestinal microbial diversity and health. The study of the influence of different individual genotypes on intestinal microbiota and the detailed mechanism of the interaction between intestinal microbiota and host metabolic pathway have not been solved. Future research can focus on more human-based clinical research to apply AI to precision nutrition.

Show more

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is a common gynecologic disorder that affects women of childbearing age, and the disorder primarily affects metabolic and reproductive health. Research on the pathogenesis of PCOS is now more complete, and there is a wide variety of tools for the management of PCOS, each with its own advantages. However, patients with PCOS still have some difficulty in finding interventions that are appropriate for their situation. This paper combines the pathogenesis of PCOS, further analyzes several representative dietary interventions and exercise interventions, and finds that in improving insulin resistance and reproductive health, PCOS patients should adopt interventions that are compatible with their own backgrounds and living conditions before further effective PCOS management is possible. This paper provides a reference for future research on dietary and exercise interventions, while the data supporting the effectiveness of the post-intervention effects on PCOS remain lacking, and future research could focus on the effectiveness of interventions in PCOS patients under different pathogenic mechanisms, in order to formulate more reasonable management strategies.

Show more