Medical Bulletin 08/ February/ 2025 - Video

Drinking ketones improves heart health, a new small-scale study from the University of Portsmouth has found. The study is published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

The trial involved 13 participants who were given a drink with ketones, and then a placebo drink over a week later. Their cardiovascular function was measured 30 minutes later using non-invasive monitoring, similar to an ECG; ultrasound to assess microvascular function, which looks at the health of the vessels; and infrared spectroscopy, which assesses the blood flow into small vessels.

Dr Maria Perissiou from the University of Portsmouth’s School of Psychology, Sport and Health Sciences, said: “In all 13 of the participants, their hearts were working more efficiently after the ketone drink at rest and during moderate intensity exercise, compared to the placebo drink. I’m feeling very positive about the results, but more research is needed because we only assessed participants on the day, which means we have no idea what the chronic impact of drinking ketones would be.”

Dr Perissiou added that the effect of ketones on heart health is a serendipitous finding: “It’s only really by chance that we’ve been able to establish this connection after seeing an improvement in cardiovascular health of patients being treated for diabetes with a drug called sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i).”

Reference: Perissiou, M., Saynor, Z. L., Feka, K., Edwards, C., James, T. J., Corbett, J., ... & Shepherd, A. I. (2025). Ketone monoester ingestion improves cardiac function in adults with type 2 diabetes: a double-blind, placebo controlled, randomised, crossover trial. Journal of Applied Physiology.

A new research paper published in Oncoscience showed that pregnant women diagnosed with cervical cancer face higher risks of health problems during pregnancy and childbirth. However, these health risks do not seem to affect the health of their babies.

Researchers analyzed data from over nine million pregnancies in the United States between 2004 and 2014. Among these cases, 222 women were diagnosed with cervical cancer before giving birth.

The study found that pregnant women with cervical cancer were more likely to be older than 35, smoke, use illicit drugs, and have chronic high blood pressure compared to those without the disease. When it came to childbirth, these women were nearly five times more likely to give birth prematurely and to require a cesarean section. They also faced an alarmingly high risk of needing a hysterectomy. Additionally, the risk of developing dangerous blood clots, such as deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism, was significantly higher in this group.

Despite these serious health risks for mothers, the study found no major differences in the health of the babies. Rates of birth defects, stillbirths, and low birth weight were similar between mothers with cervical cancer and those without.

These findings highlight the importance of specialized care for pregnant women diagnosed with cervical cancer, as effective management requires a multidisciplinary team specializing in oncological, obstetrical, and neonatal care.

As more women choose to have children later in life, this research offers critical guidance for healthcare providers and reassurance for expectant mothers facing a cervical cancer diagnosis. It also highlights the need for further studies to understand the long-term health outcomes for children born to mothers with cervical cancer, as well as the potential effects of cancer treatments during pregnancy.

Reference: Samuels, A., Badeghiesh, A., Baghlaf, H., & Dahan, M. H. (2025). Maternal, delivery and neonatal outcomes in women with cervical cancer. A study of a population database. Oncoscience, 12, 3.

Researchers discovered that although patients with depression generally have less appetite, they prefer carbohydrate-rich foods. The results have now been published in the journal "Psychological Medicine".

Patients, especially those with severe depression, often report changes in their appetite.

The study shows that depression is associated with specific changes in eating preferences, which can be explained by the composition of the foods shown. Crucial components for preferences are so-called macronutrients, which make up our diet: carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Carbohydrates are one of the main sources of energy for human cells.

People suffering from depression show a lower craving for foods rich in fat and protein compared to a healthy control group. In contrast, they tend to prefer carbohydrate-rich foods such as sweets. In the study, a higher proportion of carbohydrates also led to an increased liking of fat- and protein-rich foods for people with depression. In other words, patients with depression also had an increased craving for foods combining fat and carbohydrates such as milk chocolate. Such energy-dense foods also tend to characterize an unhealthy diet. Until now, it was assumed that the craving for carbohydrate-rich foods was linked to a greater appetite.

In the future, an accompanying dietary therapy could therefore put to the test if a change in preference for certain foods occurs during depression. It could also be investigated whether a lasting improvement in depression is possible by optimizing the patient’s diet.

"Therapies targeting the connection between the gut and brain appear particularly promising in the future. Initial studies have already shown that fasting or probiotic foods can have an antidepressant effect," says first author Lilly Thurn, a member of Prof. Kroemer's team at the UKB's Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the time of the study and currently a Master's student at Maastricht University. "It has also been shown that people with depression have changes in their microbiome that could exacerbate various symptoms."

Reference: Thurn L, Schulz C, Borgmann D, et al. Altered food liking in depression is driven by macronutrient composition. Psychological Medicine. 2025;55:e20. doi:10.1017/S0033291724003581

Women who go through menopause later in life have healthier blood vessels for years to come than those who go through it earlier, according to a study published in the American Heart Association Journal Circulation Research.

Researchers assessed the vascular health of 92 women, looking specifically at a measure called brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD), or how well their brachial artery — the main blood vessel in the upper arm — dilates with increased blood flow.

The team also measured the health of the women’s mitochondria, the energy powerhouses in the cells lining their blood vessels. And they took a close look at what molecules were coursing through their bloodstreams.

All the postmenopausal women had significantly worse arterial function than their premenopausal counterparts. That’s in part because, as people age, they produce less nitric oxide, a compound that helps blood vessels dilate and keeps them from getting stiff and developing plaque. Mitochondria in cells lining the blood vessels also become dysfunctional with age and generate more damaging molecules called free radicals, explained first author Sanna Darvish, a PhD candidate in the Department of Integrative Physiology.

The study found that vascular function was only 24% worse in the late-onset menopause group compared to the premenopausal group, while those in the normal-onset group had 51% worse vascular health.

Remarkably, such differences between the groups persisted five years or more after the women went through menopause, with the late-onset group still having 44% better vascular function than the normal onset group. Preserved vascular health in the late-onset group was related to better functioning of mitochondria which produced fewer free radicals, the study found. The circulating blood of the two groups also looked different, with the late-onset group showing “more favorable” levels of 15 different lipid or fat-related metabolites in their blood.

Reference: Darvish, S., Murray, K. O., Ludwig, K. R., Avalani, K. H., Craighead, D. H., Freeberg, K. A., ... & Rossman, M. J. (2024). Preservation of Vascular Endothelial Function in Late-Onset Postmenopausal Women. Circulation Research.