Medical Bulletin 22/February/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Association between satisfying mid-life relationships and lower multiple chronic disease risk in older age

Mounting evidence indicates a link between strong social networks and good health/wellbeing in older age, but it’s not known if these connections might lower the risk of multiple long term conditions (multimorbidity), which many older women, in particular, face.

Satisfying relationships in mid-life with partners, friends, or work colleagues are linked to a lower risk of accumulating multiple long term conditions in older age-at least among women-suggests research published in the open access journal General Psychiatry.

The less satisfying these relationships were, the greater was the risk, with the findings only partially explained by influential factors, such as income, education, and health behaviours, the study shows.

Reference:

Social relationship satisfaction and accumulation of chronic conditions and multimorbidity: a national cohort of Australian women doi 10.1136/gpsych-2022-100925,General Psychiatry

Enzyme’s role in metabolism revealed in Japanese study

It takes energy to do anything-even to exist. You can metabolize food to convert glucose into energy: thanks to many cascades of molecular reactions within your cells. As soon as you eat, your pancreas secretes insulin hormone, which starts various metabolic processes. As if it were a game of molecular relay, insulin binding to its receptors triggers a communication chain via the molecular reactions mediated by enzymes called kinases. Akt2 is one such kinase involved in insulin-regulated cellular metabolic processes.

Takeaki Ozawa and his team from the University of Tokyo reveal the metabolic reactions upon activating an enzyme called Akt2. In doing so, they reveal the inner workings of insulin-regulated metabolism. The findings lead the way for Akt2-targeting therapeutics for diabetes and metabolic disorders.

Reference:

Authors: Genki Kawamura, Toshiya Kokaji,Takeaki Ozawa et al ,"Optogenetic decoding of Akt2-regulated metabolic signaling pathways in skeletal muscle cells using transomics analysis ",Science Signaling,DOI - 10.1126/scisignal.abn0782

Study finds any regular physical activity at any age linked to better brain function in later life

Physical activity is modestly associated with a lower risks of dementia, cognitive decline, and loss of later life mental acuity. But it’s not known whether the timing, frequency, or maintenance of leisure time physical activity across the life course might be key to later life cognitive abilities.

Any regular leisure time physical activity at any age is linked to better brain function in later life, but maintaining an exercise routine throughout adulthood seems to be best for preserving mental acuity and memory, suggests a long term study published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

Even though factoring in childhood cognitive ability, household income, and education weakened the observed associations, the findings remained statistically significant.

Reference:

Timing of physical activity across adulthood on later life cognition: 30 years follow-up in the 1946 British birth cohort,Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry,doi 10.1136/jnnp-2022-329955