The Gary Null Show

Videos:

1. The great recycling LIE (what really happens to plastic) (10:44)

10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3maIN4-ZJl8 

Strawberry Compound Shown to Protect Against Alzheimer’s, Memory Loss

Salk Institute for Biological Studies, June 16, 2022 

The thought of losing your mind is a frightening one, but one in three Americans die with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. Regardless how frightening the possibility is, the chances of it happening to you aren’t exactly slim, which means prevention should be at the forefront of your mind. A recent study from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies indicates prevention could be as simple as a natural foods diet—rich in fruits (such as strawberries) and vegetables containing something called fisetin.

Fisetin is a flavonol found in strawberries, mangoes, cucumbers, and other vegetables and fruits. Researchers with the Salk Institute found this simple compound can actually reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s in mice, and could be effective in humans as well.

Maher and her team have documented that fisetin has both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in the brain. It is also able to turn on a cellular pathway related to memory function.

The team looked to a type of mouse with mutated genes making them vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. At three months old, the researchers began feeding the mice a diet enriched with fisetin.

Mice who hadn’t received the fisetin began struggling in the mazes at nine months of age, but the fisetin mice performed as well as normal (non-predisposed) mice at both nine and twelve months of age.

Avocados may hold the answer to beating leukemia

University of Waterloo (Canada), June 16, 2022

Rich, creamy, nutritious and now cancer fighting. New research reveals that molecules derived from avocados could be effective in treating a form of cancer.

Professor Paul Spagnuolo from the University of Waterloo has discovered a lipid in avocados that combats acute myeloid leukemia (AML) by targeting the root of the disease – leukemia stem cells. Worldwide, there are few drug treatments available to patients that target leukemia stem cells.

“The stem cell is really the cell that drives the disease,” said Professor Spagnuolo, in Waterloo’s School of Pharmacy. “The stem cell is largely responsible for the disease developing and it’s the reason why so many patients with leukemia relapse. We’ve performed many rounds of testing to determine how this new drug works at a molecular level and confirmed that it targets stem cells selectively, leaving healthy cells unharmed.”

The inability to stand on one leg for 10 seconds in mid- to later life is linked to a near doubling in the risk of death from any cause within the next 10 years, finds research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine

This simple and safe balance test could be included in routine health checks for older adults, say the researchers.

The researchers wanted to find out whether a balance test might be a reliable indicator of a person’s risk of death from any cause within the next decade, and, as such, might therefore merit inclusion in routine health checks in later life.

Participants were asked to stand on one leg for 10 seconds without any additional support. 

To improve standardization of the test, participants were asked to place the front of the free foot on the back of the opposite lower leg, while keeping their arms by their sides and their gaze fixed straight ahead. Up to three attempts on either foot were permitted.

In all, around 1 in 5 (20.5%; 348) participants failed to pass the test. The inability to do so rose in tandem with age, more or less doubling at subsequent 5 year intervals from the age of 51-55 onwards. 

The proportions of those unable to stand on one leg for 10 seconds were: nearly 5% among 51-55 year-olds; 8% among 56-60 year-olds; just under 18% among 61-65 year-olds; and just under 37% among 66-70 year-olds. 

More than half (around 54%) of those aged 71-75 were unable to complete the test. In other words, people in this age group were more than 11 times as likely to fail the test as those just 20 years younger.

During an average monitoring period of 7 years, 123 (7%) people died: cancer (32%); cardiovascular disease (30%); respiratory disease (9%); and COVID-19 complications (7%). The proportion of deaths among those who failed the test was significantly higher: 17.5% vs. 4.5%, reflecting an absolute difference of just under 13%.

Anxious Children have Bigger “Fear Centers” in the Brain

Stanford University School of Medicine, June 16, 2022

The amygdala is a key “fear center” in the brain. Alterations in the development of the amygdala during childhood may have an important influence on the development of anxiety problems, reports a new study in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry.



Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine recruited 76 children, 7 to 9 years of age, a period when anxiety-related traits and symptoms can first be reliably identified. 

The researchers found that children with high levels of anxiety had enlarged amygdala volume and increased connectivity with other brain regions responsible for attention, emotion perception, and regulation, compared to children with low levels of anxiety. They also developed an equation that reliably predicted the children’s anxiety level from the MRI measurements of amygdala volume and amygdala functional connectivity.

The most affected region was the basolateral portion of the amygdala, a subregion of the amygdala implicated in fear learning and the processing of emotion-related information.



Our study represents an important step in characterizing altered brain systems and developing predictive biomarkers in the identification for young children at risk for anxiety disorders,” Qin said. 

New research: Olive oil compound destroys cancer cells in 30 minutes

Rutgers University & Hunter College, June 12, 2022

 Oleocanthal, a polyphenolic, therapeutic compound found in olive oil is the subject of a new anti-cancer study performed by nutritional science and cancer biology researchers with The School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers and Hunter’s College in New York City.

Programmed cell death, known as apoptosis takes approximately 16-24 hours. Dynamic new research just published in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Oncology blew scientists away – when exposed to oleocanthal, a polyphenol compound found in olive oil, cancerous cells died within 30 minutes to an hour. While researchers previously understood that compounds in olive oil were capable of killing cancer cells, until now, such short apoptosis had not been observed.

Even more fascinating was when the team looked closely to surmise why apoptosis was occurring under such swift circumstances – they discovered that cancer cells were being killed by their own enzymes. And, not only one isolated type of cancerous cell, but all of the cancerous cells they were examining.

Unlike chemotherapeutic pharmaceuticals that devastate healthy cellular activity, the therapeutic polyphenolic compound found in olive oil kills cancer while maintaining vitality among healthy cells. As Paul Breslin, one of the study’s authors at Rutgers noted, while cancerous cells died, healthy cells were not harmed, but rather the oleocanthal “put them to sleep.” The lifecycle of healthy cells was only temporarily affected in this way, without any negative observations and in approximately 24 hours, the healthy cells resumed their life cycle. 

University of South Australia, June 21, 2022

Whether it’s sports practice, music lessons or a casual catch up with friends, when children are involved in after-school activities, they’re more likely to feel happier and healthier than their counterparts who are glued to a screen.

In a new study conducted by the University of South Australia, researchers found that children’s well-being is heightened when they participate in extra-curricular activities, yet lowered when they spent time on social media or playing video games.

Published in BMC Pediatrics, the study analyzed data from 61,759 school students in years 4 to 9, assessing the average number of days per week children participated in after-school activities (3–6pm), and measure these against well-being factors—happiness, sadness, worry, engagement, perseverance, optimism, emotion regulation, and life satisfaction.

It found that most students watched TV about four days of the school week and spent time on social media about three days of the week.

Our study highlights how some out-of-school activities can boost children’s well-being, while others—particularly screens—can chip away at their mental and physical health. “Screens are a massive distraction for children of all ages. And whether children are gaming, watching TV or on social media, there’s something about all screens that’s damaging to their well-being.

Students in lower socio-economic backgrounds who frequently played sports were 15% more likely to be optimistic, 14% more likely to be happy and satisfied with their life, and 10% more likely to be able to regulate their emotions.

Conversely, children who played video games and used social media almost always had lower levels of well-being: up to 9% less likely to be happy, up to 8% to be less optimism and 11% to be more likely to give up on things.