A recent study involving 34,000 adults shows that you don’t have to do much to dramatically curb the risk for depression. Researchers found that just one to two hours of exercise per week can cut the risk in half.

Participants who exercised on a weekly basis were healthy and in a good mood after eleven years of follow-up. Volunteers who failed to exercise were 44 percent more likely to suffer from depression.

Another piece of good news is that the workout was low to moderate intensity. Researchers found that none of the subjects had to sweat and get fatigued as long as they kept a constant weekly pace.

Study authors couldn’t tell why exercising helps against the depression, but they have some theories. They explained that after exercise, the brain releases endorphins, i.e. hormones that boost the general mood. As a result, participants tend to have a better self-esteem. These factors paired with constant peer support and social interaction may explain the positive health outcomes.

Peer Support is Critical

Experts recommend additional steps to stave off depression, which can be a debilitating disease. First, you should keep stress in check. Stress can easily lead to depression especially over prolonged periods of time.

Ensure you have enough peer support, be it family or friends. When you feel gloomy you can always call a loved one for an instant mood booster.

What’s more, don’t forget to exercise 150 minutes per week. You can dance, bike, walk, or o whatever activity that makes you move.

If you suspect you may be depressed you should seek medical help immediately. Depression is often paired with a sense of hopelessness and sadness, and in most severe cases with suicidal thoughts. Psychotherapy is the best option to go, but in severe cases, your psychiatrist may prescribe medication too.
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According to the results of a new study, low levels of vitamin D might possibly be linked and act as a potential prediction method for multiple sclerosis or MS.

Vitamin D is one of the most important nutrients for the human body in that it is essential for the health of its bones. Sometimes also called ‘the sunshine vitamin’, it is produced by the skin in response to its exposure to sunshine. It can also come from foods that are naturally rich in it.

Vitamin D, a Useful Tool in Spotting or Preventing MS?

Multiple sclerosis, a neurological condition, affects the nerves and causes the immune system to stop working properly. In doing so, it disrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and affects the motor functions.

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston researchers are behind a new study on the matter. This analyzes the disease’s connection to the so-called sunshine vitamin. Research was based on a repository of blood samples from over 800,000 living in Finland and which took part in a prenatal testing.

An average nine years later, 1,092 women were identified to have developed MS. Information from them was compared to that from 2,123 participants that were disease-free.

Based on this, the study team noted that some 58 percent of the patients that had the disease also presented a vitamin D deficit. This lack of the sunshine vitamin was somewhat lower in the other group, with only 52 percent of them presenting a deficit.

A deficit of vitamin D was determined as having fewer than 30 nanomoles/liter or nmol/L. Adequate levels were defined as being 50 nmol/L or higher.

The researchers established that each 50 nmol/L increase in the vitamin levels in the blood could lead to a 39 percent lowering of the risks of developing the disease later in life. Women with a vitamin D deficit also reportedly presented a 43 percent higher risk of having MS than participants with lower or adequate levels.

“More research is needed on the optimal dose of vitamin D for reducing the risk of MS,” said Kassandra Munger, the study author. “But striving to achieve vitamin D sufficiency over the course of a person’s life will likely have multiple health benefits.”

Still, researchers point out that more, larger and more diverse studies are needed to analyze this possible relationship between multiple sclerosis and a vitamin D deficit.

Current research findings are available in a paper in the journal Neurology.

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A team of researchers recently presented its latest invention, a so-called cancer pen named the MasSpec Pen which can reportedly diagnose the disease in just a number of seconds.

This handheld device is presented as being both fast and accurate, as it could help improve cancer treatment methods and reportedly reduce its risks of recurrence.

The Cancer Pen Can Place a Diagnosis in 10 Seconds

University of Texas, Austin scientists are behind this new invention, which was designed and led by Livia Schiavinato Eberlin. Their device, the MasSpec Pen, can rapidly and accurately diagnose cancer during surgery. It can reportedly do so in just 10 seconds or some 150 faster than the existing technologies.

The handheld device was already tested on tissue samples removed from 253 human patients diagnosed with cancer. According to reports, the cancer pen was capable of detecting the disease even in marginal regions. Located between cancer tissue and normal one, these presented mixed cellular composition. The pen was also noted to have been 96 percent accurate during these tests.

MasSpec works by releasing a tiny drop of water from its tip to the patient’s tissue. This is quickly recaptured and then sent to a mass spectrometer in the pen. A scientific device, this helps analyze the mass, and chemical composition of the molecules soaked up from the tissue.

“When designing the MasSpec Pen, we made sure the tissue remains intact by coming into contact only with water and the plastic tip of the MasSpec Pen during the procedure,” state the scientists.

The mass spectrometer then helps establish if the tissue is cancerous or not, and returns its results in just ten seconds on a computer screen.

The MasSpec Pen to Begin Real-Time Testing?

This cancer pen can reportedly identify even subtypes of cancer, besides the different types of the disease itself. It can do so as each one of them produces its unique set of biomarkers. Ones that are considered a sort of molecular “fingerprints”.

The team is hoping to start testing their new device during oncological surgeries by 2018. However, they also point out that it might still be years before the MasSpec Pen will start being regularly used.

A paper with the study results and the pen’s specifications is available in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

 

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