Category Archives: Physiology

Physiology

Cell-autonomous immunity shaped human evolution | Illinois – University of Illinois News

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Every human cell harbors its own defenses against microbial invaders, relying on strategies that date back to some of the earliest events in the history of life, researchers report in The Quarterly Review of Biology. Because this cell-autonomous immunity is so ancient and persistent, understanding it is essential to understanding human evolution and human medicine, the researchers said.

Like amoebae, most human cells can transform themselves to engulf and degrade foreign agents in a process known as phagocytosis, said Jessica Brinkworth, a professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign who wrote the new report with former undergraduate student Alexander Alvarado. And the methods that human cells use to detect, pierce or hack up invading microbes are inherited from and shared by bacteria and viruses, she said.

Every cell has these things and they have this deep evolutionary history, Brinkworth said. This means that if youre going to study humans, you need to accept that immunity is always going to be part of what youre looking at. And youre going to have to go deep into evolutionary time.

The authors reject the notion that the immune system is distinct from other bodily systems.

Immunity is literally everywhere, Brinkworth said. The whole of the organism, from the skin down to the level of the last enzyme floating anywhere in the body, almost all of it is engaged in protection in one form or another.

For that reason, she suggests that medical approaches to fighting infection that try to tamp down evolutionarily conserved immune responses such as pro-inflammatory pathways are misguided. While it can be useful or necessary to use immune-suppressing drugs against autoimmune conditions or in the case of organ transplants, such drugs do not appear to work against severe microbial infections.

In the context of severe infections, there have been many attempts to come up with ways of reducing the immune response by throwing a bunch of steroids at it or blocking the bodys ability to detect the pathogen, Brinkworth said. But targeting these immune mechanisms that have been around for millions of years is potentially counterproductive.

In the case of sepsis, which Brinkworth studies, this approach has not been fruitful.

More than 100 trials of immunomodulatory approaches to sepsis have failed, she said. And the one drug that made it to market then failed. Most of these drugs tried to block highly evolutionarily conserved defenses, like mechanisms of cell-autonomous immunity.

Many immunomodulatory drugs now being tested against the new coronavirus are failed sepsis drugs, she said.

Similarly, anthropologists often fail to consider how millions of years of battle against infections at the cellular level have shaped human genetics, physiology and even behavior, Brinkworth said.

If youre talking about human evolution, if youre in any physiological system, youre going to have to address at some point how pathogens have shaped it, she said.

Brinkworth also is an affiliate of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I.

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Cell-autonomous immunity shaped human evolution | Illinois - University of Illinois News

Physiology

Researchers Discovers Cell in Zebrafish Critical to Brain Assembly and Function – Technology Networks

New research from Oregon Health & Science University for the first time documents the presence of astrocytes in zebrafish, a milestone that will open new avenues of research into a star-shaped type of glial cell in the brain that is critical for nearly every aspect of brain assembly and function.

The research was published this week in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

With their transparent bodies, zebrafish larvae provide a unique opportunity to gaze into the inner workings of the central nervous system, including the brain, even in living animals. The identification of astrocytes and the generation of tools to work with them in zebrafish will enable researchers around the world to open new lines of research to advance scientific understanding of how astrocytes function.

Astrocytes, it turns out, are the most abundant and mysterious cell type in the human brain, and OHSU is becoming a hub for research into their roles in development, brain function and disease.

"There is no neurodegenerative disease that I know of where astrocytes are not profoundly affected in some way," said senior author Kelly Monk, Ph.D., professor and co-director of the Vollum Institute at OHSU. "This gives us a powerful tool to get a handle on what these cells do and how they do it."

Monk and co-author Marc Freeman, Ph.D., credit lead author Jiakun Chen, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the Monk and Freeman labs, with developing a panoply of tools, including a cell-specific approach using the gene editing tool CRISPR to label and manipulate astrocyte precursors and incisively study their development and functions.

"He was able to capture the birth of an astrocyte from a stem cell and its entire development, which has never been visualized before in a vertebrate animal," Monk said.

Freeman said the discovery will dramatically enhance the study of how glia regulate brain development and physiology.

"This opens the door to experiments that you can't do in any other organism," Freeman said. "Zebrafish is the only animal in which you can now live-image all types of vertebrate glial cellsastrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes and OPCsalong with any neuron in intact neural circuits, from the earliest stages of development. Zebrafish is also the only vertebrate in which you can image the entire brain in live, behaving animals to figure out how it works. Understanding the role of these cells (astrocytes) in brain development will be key to understanding devastating neurodevelopmental disorders like autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia.

"It's a major step forward and should power a lot of exciting work in the coming years."

Reference:Jiakun Chen, Kira E. Poskanzer, Marc R. Freeman & Kelly R. Monk. Live-imaging of astrocyte morphogenesis and function in zebrafish neural circuits, Nature Neuroscience,2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41593-020-0703-x

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Researchers Discovers Cell in Zebrafish Critical to Brain Assembly and Function - Technology Networks

Physiology

Rodents in space: Keeping bone and muscle strong on the ISS – Astronomy Magazine

The decoy has another effect: It traps a second protein, called activin A, which also prevents growth of muscle as well as bone. Sure enough, space mice injected with the decoy receptor gained a double benefit: They kept their muscles buff and their bone density high. Bone and muscle even grew, so that the treated mice touched down with more of those tissues than untreated mice that were left on the ground.

The team also tested whether the treatments could reverse muscle wasting and bone loss that had already happened. To do this, they gave the decoy receptor to regular mice that had lost muscle and bone mass on the ISS, after theyd splashed down in the Pacific on January 7, 2020, and been taken to land in San Diego. These animals quickly recovered both bone and muscle; their muscles even grew bigger than theyd been before takeoff.

The results suggest that there could be a way to use a drug to protect astronauts from muscle and bone loss, says David Glass, vice president for research on aging and age-related disorders at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in Tarrytown, New York. He cautioned, however, that space atrophy is different from Earth-based forms.

Nonetheless, Lees hope is that blockers for myostatin and activin A could preserve or restore muscle on the ground. Physiologist Christoph Handschin of the University of Basel in Switzerland agrees, but he adds a caveat: This looks super-promising if this can be translated into humans. Handschin, wholaid out the landscape of therapies for muscle wastingin theAnnual Review of Physiology, notes that several drug companies have tried to treat people with compounds that interfere with myostatin, without much success.

Lee is optimistic, though. He suspects that blocking myostatin in people is not sufficient, so he hopes that compounds like the decoy receptor that engage activin A might prove more effective than earlier compounds did. Glass says that to avoid side effects, it would be important to design a medication that is unlikely to interact with molecules other than myostatin and activin A, as the decoy can.

And while supporting human space travel isnt Lees main goal, such a molecule could, perhaps, catch NASAs interest as the agencyplans for longer space missionsthat will probably not have room for extensive gym equipment.

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

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Rodents in space: Keeping bone and muscle strong on the ISS - Astronomy Magazine

Physiology

University of Pittsburgh Selected to Lead International Trials in COVID-19 Care – UPJ Athletics

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has selected the University of Pittsburgh to lead a trio of Phase 3 clinical trials involving COVID-19 patients. Collectively known as ACTIV-4 Antithrombotics, these trials will explore the use of blood thinners in saving lives and improving care, particularly among adult COVID-19 patients who are at risk of developing life-threatening blood clots.

As the coordinating center for these trials, Pitt is occupying a leading role in the National Institutes of Healths Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) initiative, funded through Operation Warp Speed. Sixother universitiesHarvard University, New York University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Vermontare also participating in the initiative, which will continue to add qualifying institutions.

This is a massive undertaking supported by the NIHone that is leveraging a global network to help improve patient outcomes for COVID-19, said Anantha Shekhar, who serves as Pitts senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. It is also a challenge that the University of Pittsburgh, a longtime leader in health care innovation, is perfectly positioned to tackle.

Researchers and clinicians have noted that many patients who have died from COVID-19 formed blood clots throughout their bodies, including in their smallest blood vessels. This unusual clottingone of many life-threatening effects of the diseasecauses multiple health complications, from lung and other organ damage to heart attacks, pulmonary embolisms and strokes.

Antithrombotics, also known as blood thinners or anticoagulants, keep blood protein and plateletsfrom turning into clumps or sticking to each other, but doctors have not yet figured out ifand at what point in the course of COVID-19blood thinners might be effective at treating patients with this condition.

Stephen Wisniewski, vice provost for budget and analytics, and two physician scientists from PittMatthew D. Neal, the Roberta G. Simmons Associate Professor of Surgery; and Frank Sciurba, a professor of medicine and education who directs the Pulmonary Function Exercise Physiology Laboratoryare leading this effort.

Understanding how to treat coagulation risk in COVID-19 patients is critical to lessening the impact of this pandemic, said Wisniewski. Pitts ability to innovate and collaborate enables us to help ensure that these trials will be completed with the rigor and speed necessary to make an impact at this critical moment. In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and our peer institutions, we will use the combined tools of biology and statistics to advance the treatments of this deadly virus.

ACTIV-4 consists of three platforms: an inpatient platform launching now, an outpatient platformthat will focus on patients who do not need hospitalizationand a post-hospitalization outpatient platform that will focus onpatients who have already been discharged from care.

There is currently no standard of care for anticoagulation in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, and there is a desperate need for clinical evidence to guide practice, said Francis S. Collins, director of NIH. Conductingtrials using multiple existing networks of research sites provides the scale and speed that will get us answers faster.

The first trial, ACTIV-4 Antithrombotics Inpatient, is a master platform for collaboration among several randomized clinical trial platforms, including PROTECT COVID-19 at NYU Langone Health; the international REMAP-CAP, including leadership from Pitt and UPMC; and ATTACC from Canada. It will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of varying doses of the blood thinner heparin.

The trial will assign patients to either a low or high dose of heparin and, as the trial progresses, additional anticoagulants may be tested, depending on early results. Throughout the study, all participants will receive clinical care as indicated for their condition.

This has been an amazingly cooperative endeavorunequivocally the most rapidly moving, complex but also highly collaborative experience of my life, said Neal. By harmonizing these platforms, well be able to arrive at an answer as to whether antithrombotics can improve outcomes in COVID-19and at what dosesfar faster than we would otherwise.

Neal is co-chair of the protocol development committee and a lead investigator for the ACTIV-4 Antithrombotics Inpatient platform. Sciurba, who also serves as director of UPMCs Pulmonary Physiology Center, is co-chair of the protocol development committee and a lead investigator of the outpatient platform.

While the greatest focus on blood clotting complications has been in the inpatient setting, earlier attention in more stable patients prior to hospitalization may have an important impact on progression to the more serious consequences of COVID-19, said Sciurba.

Other investigators from Pitt include Maria Mori Brooks, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics and co-director of Pitts Epidemiology Data Center, who is leading the statistical design of the outpatient platform; Alison Morris, chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, who is the co-chair of the protocol development committee of the post-hospitalization outpatient platform; and Abdus S. Wahed, director of PhD Graduate Programs in Pitts Department of Biostatistics, who is leading the statistical design of the post-hospitalization outpatient platform.

Given the unpredictable geographic variability of COVID-19, the ACTIV-4 team is actively recruiting sites with clinical trial experience that have significant COVID-19 burden. To inquire, email ACTIV4siteenroll@pitt.edu.

Scientists and clinicians across Pitts six health sciences schools, along with colleagues from other academic departments, have taken a prominent role in responding to the pandemic. In all, Pitt is home to more than 400 ongoing studies related to COVID-19 and the coronavirus.

Earlier this month, a study led by Derek Angus, distinguished professor and the Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair of Pitts Department of Critical Care Medicine, appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association and informed the World Health Organizations recommendation to use steroids to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients.

Additional efforts at Pitt to fight COVID-19 include work led by Paul Duprex, in Pitts Center for Vaccine Research to harness a measles vaccine engineered to express SARS-CoV-2 proteins on its surface to generate immunity to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Also in the Center for Vaccine Research: William Klimstra, an associate professor of immunology, is investigating an antibody therapy called SAB-185 that could be used to both treat COVID-19 and prevent it in front-line workers and military personnel. Last month, clinical staff began injecting SAB-185 into healthy volunteers for a phase I safety study.

Pitts Clinical and Translational Science Institute has awarded nearly $1 million to 17 studies that are exploring different aspects of the pandemic, from modeling the virus to examining how the lungs microbiome may impact infection.

Two pharmaceutical companies, Moderna and AstraZeneca, are also partnering with Pitt and UPMC on vaccine trials. The phase III trials, led by Judy Martin, director of the Pittsburgh Vaccine Clinical Trials Unit and professor of pediatrics, and Sharon Riddler, director of clinical research in Pitts Division of Infectious Diseases, seek to determine if the vaccines can prevent COVID-19 and for how long.

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University of Pittsburgh Selected to Lead International Trials in COVID-19 Care - UPJ Athletics

Physiology

Suicide Prevention: What Are the Warning Signs, Prevention measures? – Newsd.in

By Dr. Riddhish K. Maru

On World Suicide Prevention Day we look at the tell tale signs and symptoms you can watch out for in case you feel a friend, colleague or a loved one may be contemplating suicide.

The act of killing or trying to harm oneself is called suicide. It is an action against a humans basic survival instinct or against ones nature of procreation, this makes it an interesting subject interesting. Suicide is exclusively almost seen only in the human species and its been known off since immemorial time.

Suicide is the outcome of neurobiological breakdown. The process begins in severe stress and pain which has been generated by due to a serious life crisis. Suicide occurs when the stress induces unbearable pain that feelings of self-control and self-esteem are weakened & death is seen as the only relief.

Suicidal entails changes in the brains chemistry and physiology, an imbalance in serotonin levels. Para suicidal behaviour is seen when there are attempts to deliberately harm self to gain attention.

Incidence:

Suicide is on the rise in this century, 258,075 people committed suicide in India in 2012. Indias suicide rate was 21.1 per 100,000 people, according to WHO.

Psychology of Suicide:

Menninger believed that suicide is inverted homicide. Generally aggression is directed outward, at a person or an object. But when it is directed inwards, it becomes suicide. Freud beliefs were on similar lines but with the parameters of life force (Eros) and death force (Thanatos).

Suicide Warning Signs: F.A.C.T.

F for Feelings:

Hopelessness It will never get any better/Theres nothing anyone can do.

Fear of losing control, fear of going crazy, fear of harming oneself or others.

Helplessness, a feeling that no one cares, everyone would be better off without me.

Overwhelming guilt, shame, and self-hatred.

Pervasive sadness

A for Actions or Events

Drug or alcohol abuse

Themes of death or destruction in talk or written materials (letters, notes)

Nightmares

Recent losses through death, divorce, end of a relationship, separation, loss of job, money, status, pride, self-esteem.

Loss of religious faith or spirituality

Agitation, restlessness

Aggression, recklessness

C for Change

In personality more withdrawn, tired, apathetic, indecisive or more boisterous, talkative, outgoing.

Different temperament than usual.

In thoughts cant concentrate on schoolwork, routine tasks, etc.

In sleep patterns oversleeping, excessive sleeping, insomnia

In eating habits loss of appetite, weight gain/loss, overeating, change in eating rituals

In activities loss of interest in friends, hobbies, personal grooming, or other activities

Sudden improvement after a period of being down or withdrawn, too euphoric

T for Threats

Statements, e.g., How long does it take to bleed to death?

Threats, e.g., I wont be around much longer.

Plans, e.g., putting affairs in order, giving away favourite things, obtaining a weapon.

Gestures, or attempts, e.g., overdose, wrist cutting.

In India, suicide was illegal and a survivor would face jail term of up to one year and fine under Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code but Government of India decided to repeal the law in 2014.

Solution:

If you have ever had suicidal thoughts or you know someone who has, the first thing you need to do is accept that it is possible to feel that way. Denial can only lead to more repression and a bigger outburst of events. Secondly, talk to someone about it. It could be your family, friends, colleague or a psychiatrist. And always when you feel things are going out of your control, dont be ashamed to ask for help. These are few ways that suicidal ideas can be identified early and can be addressed. Electro convulsive therapy is the gold standard treatment of suicide.

Supportive psychotherapy is required in each case.

Reducing social isolation,

Preventing social disintegration,

Treating mental disorders by Psychiatrist

Banning of pesticides & ropes

Additionally, a set of state led policies are being enforced to decrease the high suicide rate among farmers of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

(The author is a Psychiatrist, consultant at Practo)

(IANSlife can be contacted at [emailprotected])

IANS

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Suicide Prevention: What Are the Warning Signs, Prevention measures? - Newsd.in

Physiology

News of the Weird | National | lagrandeobserver.com – La Grande Observer

Youre going to need a bigger boat a much bigger boat

BRISTOL, England Paleontologists with the University of Bristol, England, have unveiled the true size of the prehistoric mega-shark megalodon.

Today, the most fearsome living shark is the Great White. Adults can exceed 20 feet in length and bite with a force of two tons.

The University of Bristol in a press release Sept. 3 announced new research estimating the Great Whites fossil relative was more than twice that long and could bite with a force of 10 tons.

The massive predator and star of a share of B movies lived from 23 million to around three million years ago. The fossils of megalodon are mostly huge triangular cutting teeth bigger than a human hand.

Jack Cooper, who completed his masters courses in palaeobiology at the University of Bristols School of Earth Sciences, and colleagues made close comparisons to a diversity of living relatives with ecological and physiological similarities to megalodon, according to the press release, and used a number of mathematical methods to pin down the size and proportions of this monster.

Shark expert Dr. Catalina Pimiento from Swansea University and professor Mike Benton, a palaeontologist at Bristol, supervised the project. Professor Humberto Ferrn of Bristol also collaborated.

The journal Scientific Reports published the research.

I have always been mad about sharks, Cooper said in the press release. As an undergraduate, I have worked and dived with Great whites in South Africa protected by a steel cage of course. Its that sense of danger, but also that sharks are such beautiful and well-adapted animals, that makes them so attractive to study.

Megalodon, he continued, was actually the very animal that inspired me to pursue paleontology in the first place at just 6 years old.

Previously the fossil shark, known formally as Otodus megalodon, was compared with the Great White.

Cooper and his colleagues, for the first time, expanded this analysis to include five modern sharks. Pimiento said in the press release that megalodon is not a direct ancestor of the Great White but is equally related to makos, the salmon shark and porbeagle shark.

We pooled detailed measurements of all five to make predictions about megalodon, he said.

Benton explained the team first had to test whether these five modern sharks changed proportions as they grew to adulthood.

If, for example, they had been like humans, where babies have big heads and short legs, he said according to the press release, we would have had some difficulties in projecting the adult proportions for such a huge extinct shark.

He said they were surprised and relieved to discover the babies of all these modern predatory sharks start out as little adults and dont change in proportion as they get larger.

Cooper added this meant they could take the growth curves of the five modern forms and project the overall shape as they get larger and larger.

Right up to a body more than 52 feet long.

The results suggest at that size, Otodus megalodon likely had a head about 15 feet long, a dorsal fin approximately 5.3 feet tall and a tail almost 13 feet tall.

The reconstruction of the size of megalodon body parts represents a fundamental step towards a better understanding of the physiology of this giant, according to the press release, and the intrinsic factors that may have made it prone to extinction.

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News of the Weird | National | lagrandeobserver.com - La Grande Observer

Physiology

Want to study better? Just two minutes of exercise beforehand could help – KTVZ

If youre feeling a bit sluggish today, just two minutes of exercise could give your brain a boost, a new study shows.

Researchers from Jnkping University in Sweden analyzed a range of 13 studies into the effects of exercise on people aged 18-35 conducted by scientists between 2009 and 2019.

Writing in the journal Translational Sports Medicine last month, they concluded that between two minutes and one hour of aerobic exercise such as running, walking or cycling improves learning and memory functions in young adults.

Exercise at moderate to high intensity, even for just 120 seconds, they added, improved learning memory, planning and problem solving, concentration (and) verbal fluency, with the positive effect lasting up to two hours.

The researchers said there was a connection between exercise and learning ability, which suggests that exercising before you work or study could be beneficial though they said more research was needed to identify optimal exercise strategies.

This systematic review shows that aerobic, physical exercise before encoding improves learning and memory functions in young adults, the authors said.

Encoding, the researchers explained, is the first stage in the brains process of storing information to memory, and is the processing of the information phase.

This is not the first study to show the benefits of exercise for wellbeing.

A study of people with an average age of 66 published in the American Academy of Neurology journal in May found that regular exercise can increase thinking and verbal skills of older adults, too.

This is because increasing the heart rate through exercise pumps more oxygen-rich blood to the brain, stimulating the release of hormones that boost the production of new brain cells.

Even if you start an exercise program later in life, the benefit to your brain may be immense, study author Marc Poulin, an exercise physiology and nutrition professor at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, told CNN at the time.

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Want to study better? Just two minutes of exercise beforehand could help - KTVZ

Physiology

Research Antibodies Market: Report Analysis Global Market Revenue and Share by Manufacturers Boosting the Healthcare Industry Worldwide – Owned

The global research antibodies market is anticipated to rise at a notable pace over the forecast period. Antibodies display exceptional physiological properties that make them sought-after for cell research.

Antibodies display other properties too. As they have the ability to attach to specific molecules, this enables specific molecules to be isolated for research. Hence, this makes for a key factor for continual research to examine the physiology and anatomy of antibodies.

The report serves to identify prevailing growth trends based on which projections made. The report constitutes most relevant data pertaining to comprehend the growth dynamics of research antibodies market. Geographical distribution of the research antibodies market and an analysis of the competitive structure are highlights of the report.

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Global Research Antibodies Witness Most Promising Rise in Demand

Currently, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies are undertaking extensive R&D activities to introduce novel products. These pursuits involve widespread use of antibodies because of their exceptional physiological properties. Therefore, research on antibodies receives a boost for their use in secondary cell research.

At present, stem cell research is finding keen interest of researchers and geneticists. Several studies support the efficacy of stem cell for blood cancers, blood and bone marrow diseases, immune disorders. Lately, stem cells from the umbilical cord and stem cells from the blood stream have been used to treat rare blood related diseases. Due to the dependency an antibodies for stem cell research, researchers are involved to isolate different antibodies molecules. This is aiding growth of research antibodies market.

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The study offers an in-depth assessment of various customers journeys pertinent to the market and its segments. It offers various customer impressions about the products and service use. The analysis takes a closer look at their pain points and fears across various customer touch points. The consultation and business intelligence solutions will help interested stakeholders, including CXOs, define customer experience maps tailored to their needs. This will help them aim at boosting customer engagement with their brands.

Key Players of Research Antibodies Report:

Prominent players in the global research antibodies market include Abcam plc, Agilent Technologies, and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.

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Research Antibodies Market: Report Analysis Global Market Revenue and Share by Manufacturers Boosting the Healthcare Industry Worldwide - Owned

Physiology

The benefits of using organic beauty – Marie Claire UK

If you're serious about shopping sustainably and ethically, look for the Soil Association COSMOS Organic logo

Did you know there is no legislation in place to monitor the use of the word organic within the beauty industry? Thats why opting for Organic Certification is so important. Heres how.

The insatiable demand for beauty products comes with a major environmental impact, with as much as 70% of plastic waste generated by the industry not being recycled and ending up in landfill.

The way forward is clearly to overhaul the way we package and produce, namely by implementing alternatives to plastic packaging, by establishing responsible recycling schemes, and by making sustainably sourced and organic ingredients the norm. There is firm evidence that consumers are appreciating this shift towards more eco-responsible practises much more right now too.

The good news is that even small changes would make a major positive impact on the environment.For Organic Beauty and Wellbeing Week the Soil Association is urging consumers to make One Small Swap by switching non-organic beauty and wellbeing products to certified organic because these products have followed strict sustainability requirements and will make a world of difference.

Choose organic sanitary care. Natracare are fully committed to making eco-friendly products with zero-waste manufacturing using green energy. The goal for them is to reduce plastic footprint with biodegradable menstrual products by using natural materialsand 100% certified organic cottonso unlike conventional brands, they wont be polluting the earth for the next 500 years.

Another brand doing sustainability thoroughly is Hoama. The founder Enis Anteplioglu believes that preservatives are avoidable and most of the time harmful to ecosystems so has innovated by using bio-phytonic science violet coloured glass bottle technology that helps protect the ingredients.Antelplioglu also supports sustainability through use of ingredients so opts for organic, without any herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, petroleum waxes, and a complete ban on unsustainable ingredients like sandalwood and any plants about to go extinct.

Theres still work to be done, but the industry support for sustainability, with companies like brands Natracare and Hoama, is encouraging, and we hope that more will follow suit and fast.

Beauty is adapting. As weturn to nature for its wellbeing benefits and climate change continues to take devastating turns, there has been a shift towards natural and organic ingredientswhen it comes to skincare and cosmetics and that echoes the clean eating movement in how its driving trends.

Two brands that have helped consumers make their first step into greener living very successfully are Indie Lee and Garniers Organic Range.

Starting her journey with the organic food movement, founder Indie Lee began thinking about the bigger picture and started her mission to create a beauty line that was safe and effective, while educating and empowering others about what they were putting on their skin. Knowing the power that real food has on the healing effect internally, sourcing ingredients from mother nature for skincare became increasingly more important. Additionally, using green chemistry and that science to amplify the potential of their ingredients means you no longer have to sacrifice efficiency when using ingredients that are from nature. For example, they are now able to find peptides and ceramides that are plant-derived. As this green technology evolves organic companies can impact the effectiveness.

Shes also concerned about the environment, rightly sayingthat this is the only earth we have and we can no longer turn a blind eye to the pesticides and herbicides are contaminating our soil and water systems.

In terms of Garniers Organic Range they are big believers that organic farming helps create a healthy living soil that is more resistant to drought, floods and consequently the impacts of climate change. Soil is a non-renewable resource; its preservation is essential for food security and our sustainable future. Organic production enhances soil life, natural soil fertility and water quality.

The organic formulators at Garnier are using ingredients (such as hemp in their new Skincare Restoring Range for stressed skin) that have stood the test of time and are proven to deliver results. When it comes to better skin, it makes sense to turn to nature for solutions.

Look for the Cosmos Organic logo and youll be helping to support the farmers and producers who work hard to grow our ingredients and look after our land for generations to come. By making One Small Swap to a certified organicproduct you can make a world of difference. Look out for the logo.

The benefits of holistic wellbeing includes doing our best to live a healthy lifestyles while doing our bit to take care of the environment.

First, there are scientific benefits to spending more time in nature such as reduction in anxiety and stress. Eating food as close to its natural state as possible, eating organically and shopping at local farmers markets to help reduce greenhouse gasses.

Holistic wellbeing bleeds out into beauty routines too:79% of people say that are more likely to buy a beauty product if it says organic.However, products may claim to be organic but, unlike organic food and drink businesses, beauty brands are not legally obligated to be certified and can claim to be organic even if they contain just 1% organic ingredients. Soil Association Certification means those products must contain 95% organic ingredients so look out for their logo on the packaging.

An intriguing element of holistic wellbeing is the mind-body connection, and a deeper understanding of the 360 experience of being human is integral to the founder of Pinks Boutique, Kirstie Sherriffs approach. She believes that you are not going to be able to fix your skin without changing negative thought patterns or sorting gut health. She is also adamant about the huge benefits of tackling stress, which on a physiological level dumps cortisol in the body, ups inflammation, and makes absorbing goodness from food harder.

Keeping an eye on holistic health includes making love, so when purchasing a lubricant, its important to consider what youre putting on your skin. Choosing to use products like YES that are organic and natural, are designed to match our bodies physiology to match the vaginal pH decreasing the risk of infection. Their natural ingredients including aloe vera, flax seed, cocoa butter, shea butter and calendula oil, whereas, non-organic sexual health products often contain parabens, glycerine, hormones and other known skin irritants such as glycols.

This is not a trend, its a way of life with increasing proof that living this way can increase energy, enhance wellbeing and help us to look healthier and more vibrant.

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The benefits of using organic beauty - Marie Claire UK

Physiology

Everything You Need to Know About Period Tracking – Outside

Track your period andtrain smarter. That was the promise of FitrWoman, an app I downloaded on my phone last fall. Id decided to try it out because my fitness level seemed to drop off precipitously last year. Even though I was healthy and there were no major changes in my training, my endurance tanked. My joints and muscles were unrelentingly tight and brittle. My body didnt seem to recoverever. Id have one or two good weeks followed by a lackluster one where I could barely rally to run more than three miles and do some physical therapy exercises. The cycle repeated over and over.

All year, I tried every trick in the book to get back on track, but blindly following the advice of the latest fitness articles and sports research papers felt like a crapshoot (and not a very smart strategy). I was desperate for some concrete guidance. When nothing else seemed to help, I wondered if I should pay more attention to my hormones and menstrual cycle. Honestly, even though Ive written about the myriad ways that womens cycles can impact health and performance, I dont regularly think about it in the context of my own life. I dont compete at a high level, and I wasnt training for a goal race. I like to run, swim, practice yoga, and play outside as much as possible, and I wasnt sure my period really mattered. But Im in my early forties, and recentlymy period started acting finicky when it used to run like clockwork.

To the extent that I did think about my period, I considered it a liability when it came to sportsa nuisance at best, and a barrier to peak race-day results at worst. And Im not alone. A 2016 study in the journal PLOS Onefound that 55.4 percent of female athletes felt thattheir monthly cycle impacted their training or performance. However, menstruation is usually a taboo and embarrassing topic to discuss with friends, coaches, and teammatesso most women are left with few strategies to mitigate the effects of their cycle on their workouts except to grin and bear it. In fact, according to a 2019 analysis of responses from over 14,000 female Strava users, 72 percent said they have received no education about exercise and their periods.

Yetaccording to experts, understanding how women experience the menstrual cycle is fundamental to sports and performance. Womens physiology changes dramatically across the whole cycle, says Emma Ross, the former head of physiology for the English Institute of Sport, which supports British Olympic and Paralympic athletes. Hormones like estrogen and progesterone ebb and flow throughout the month, influencing everything from how women respond to training, metabolize nutrients, and regulate body temperature and hydration levels. In other words, my fueling needs and ability to recover from workouts may change depending on whether Im in a low-hormone phase or a high-hormone phase.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of why my fitness was stuck in the doldrums, I tracked my period for two months using two apps: Clue and FitrWoman.

According to experts, understanding how women experience the menstrual cycle is fundamental to sports and performance.

Lets back up for a minute. You may remember from biology class that there are two phases of the menstrual cycle. The first phase is the follicular phase, which kicks off when a woman starts her period: the body prepares to release an egg from an ovary and begins to rebuild the uterine lining. Generally, hormones are low during this period but start to rise. Ovulation occurs mid-cycle, when the egg is released. This marks the end of the follicular phase and the beginning of the luteal phase, when hormone levels are generally high and the body prepares to either accept a fertilized egg and support a pregnancy, or the body gets ready to shed the uterine lining.

In the past few years, researchers have begun to dig deeper into sex differences in sports science, with a particular focus on the impact of the menstrual cycle. There is mounting anecdotal evidencethat when you adjust training protocols to the specifics of female physiology, athletes perform better. The biggest endorsement for period tracking came last summer, when it was revealed that the U.S. Womens National Soccer Teamwho won ahistoric fourth World Cup lastJulytracked their cycles leading up toand during the tournament. The team implemented training, nutrition, recovery, and sleep strategies based on where each player was in their cycle. Chelsea F.C. Women (a womens soccer club based in England), the Brisbane Lions Womens team (an Australian Football League womens team), and others have also followed suit.

While recognizing monthly fluctuations can be useful, period tracking isnt a silver bullet. There isnt enough high-quality research to create evidence-based guidelines, especially given womens highly variable experiences with their period. In a Twitter thread, Kirsty Elliot-Sale, an associate professor at Nottingham Trent University and a researcher on female physiology, cautioned: We, the scientific community, have not yet reached a consensus on the direction or magnitude of changes that occur during the menstrual cycle and as such it is impossible for us to guide womens sport on this basis. (In July of this year, Elliott-Sale and her colleagues published a meta-analysis of the research on the menstrual cycle and exercise performance in the journal Sports Medicine, and called for further investigation because of the inconclusive results.)

However, menstrual cycle tracking can be an opportunity to empower women to appreciate their own physiology, says Dr. Ellen Casey, associate attending physiatristin the Womens Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. If its really true that risk of injury and performance fluctuates across the menstrual cycle, we can either say, That sucks, and not deal with it, or we can say, This is fascinating. Are there things we can learn from this? Can we harness these changes and train in certain ways at certain times?

In the past, most women have relied on pen and paper to keep tabs on their periods, if they did at all. Todaythere is no shortage of apps to help women understand their bodies better. Its all part of the booming femtech market, broadly defined as products, apps, and digital services centered around womens health and well-being. The category is projectedto be worth $50 billion by 2025, according to Frost andSullivan, a marketing consulting firm.

While most period-tracking apps are geared towardovulation and fertility, a growing numberlike Clue and Floallow women to log exercise and energy levels as well as more traditional symptoms like cramps and cravings. Garmin and Fitbit also offer period-tracking functions, so women can make notes on their cycle alongside their runs, bikes, and swims. MyFlo suggests different physical activities that may be more suited to the current phase of your cycle.The app then sorts through your data and looks for patterns and trends.

FitrWoman, which is targeted specifically to active women, takes things a step further: in addition to menstrual cycle and activity tracking, it provides educational snippets on whats happening in your bodybased on your current menstrual cycle phase, and offers strategies to mitigate those effects. On the home screen, you can swipe through a few slides and read how hormonal fluctuations may affect your physiology, training, and nutrition. Theres a link to recipes, too, which are tailored to support training and recovery for the phase youre in.

Each day, I opened the apps, clicked on the calendar (the main hub in both apps), and reported any symptomsI experienced that day. In FitrWoman, I scrolled a single page and chose from 20 different symptoms.

Clue, on the other hand, groups symptoms into nine categories (bleeding, pain, emotions, sleep, energy, cravings, digestion, mental, and exercise). Each category has four options: like cramps, headache, ovulation, and tender breastsfor pain; or happy, sensitive, sad, or PMSfor emotions. Just swipe and tap to log the relevant symptoms. I also have the option to create custom tags. Each month, I noted when my period started, its flow, and how long it lasted. The apps then predicted when my next period would start.

At first, chronicling daily symptoms was like starting a brand-new puzzle. I was excited to dig in and figure out what all the pieces would reveal about my physiology. For example, I noticed that I typically feel great in the follicular days between the end of my period and ovulation, when my hormone levels are relatively low. Im happy. I have plenty of energy. And I feel strong during my runs and strength sessions, so I can push myself harder.

On the flip side, during the luteal phaseI tend to feel flat, battle daily headaches, and have less energy and motivation to work out. This makes sense, since estrogen and progesterone levels are high, which can lead to bloating and fatigue. I also want to eat all the sweet and salty foods I can get my hands on during this time. We know that cravings are likely caused by increased insulin resistance in this phase, says Georgie Bruinvels, an exercise physiologist and the creator of FitrWoman. This can make blood-sugar levels more unstable. Instead of criticizing myself for being lazy and giving into my cravings, I was more proactive about fueling throughout the day to keep my blood sugar stable and switched up harder workouts for yoga, swimming, or a rest day during this phase.

Both apps also let women share information with their real-life coach. FitrWoman uses FitrCoach, a separate fee-based platform onwhich coaches can see where an athlete isin her menstrual cycle and which symptoms theyve logged. It also sends a notification if an athlete hasnt logged a period, which may be a sign of amenorrhea, the absence of menstruation. Amenorrhea can have a long-term impact on a womans health and signal the presence of a larger issue like the female athlete triad, or relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S).

Since many women dont talk openly about their menstrual cycle, this setup can be a way to facilitate these private conversations, says Adam St. Pierre, an ultrarunning coach based in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, athletes would send him a text or email, or leave a note in their training log when they started their period or if they experienced troublesome symptoms. It wasnt super scientific, he says. FitrCoach allows for more tracking, letting me make sure things are going well. The equivalent setup for Clue is called Clue Connect: you can invite others to view your cycle, such as a coach, partner, family member, or friend. The app will show them the dates for your past, current, and predicted periods, fertile windows, and PMS. Other symptoms remain private.

While logging symptoms and collecting data about my cycle was easy, figuring out what it all meant and how I could apply it to my life wasnt so simple. Both apps provide educational information about menstruation and common symptoms, but the information is generic. I had to triangulate between FitrWoman, exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist Stacy Simss book Roar (the go-to training and nutrition guide for female athletes), and my own experience to determine which adjustments I could make and when.

There is currently no easy way to step back and get a macro-level view of my cycle and symptoms alongside my training log in either app. While FitrWoman syncs with Strava, I can only see that information for an individual day, not on a weekly or monthly basis. My basic activity stats (distance, pace, time, calories, elevation gain, etc.) automatically feed into my FitrWoman calendar and appear alongside symptoms Ive logged for that day. The data isnt pushed to my Strava feed. Plus, I normally use TrainingPeaks, not Strava, to track my workouts, and right nowthe app doesnt sync with TrainingPeaks. So I had to manually jump back and forth between all the apps, making it harder to see trends and process the overall picture of my health and performance. Bruinvels says FitrWoman plans to develop a higher-level view of the data over a longer time period and overlay it with training information. It may also move towardpredicting when symptoms are likely to occurbased on previous cycles. (The timeline for these developments isunclear.)

For its part, Clue does begin to analyze your reported data after you complete two cycles. It plots recurrent symptoms across each recorded cycleand predicts when youre likely to experience them based on past cycles. It also presents an overview: the average length of a cycle, the average length of a period, and the typical cycle length variation. Clues cycle analysis starts to get at the macro-level insights I craveand provides the data points to start piecing together the puzzle.

Admittedly, I wanted period tracking to be a fix, and to offer me a prescriptive path back to better fitness and strength. But its never that easy. Im still in the process of parsing out the data and testing different adjustments to get back on track.

Still, the simple act of noticing how I felt each day gave me a framework to interpret the signals my body was sending. Instead of berating myself for a bad run or lack of energy during strength workouts, I can put those workouts into context: Where am I in my cycle? Whats going on with my body that may make me feel this way? Should I expect to feel good today? NowI have a plausible explanation for how I feel, putting a stop to some of the second-guessing going on in my head.

Theres no part of the cycle thats negative, Sim says.Its about gaining awareness of how you are across your cycle and learning to work with that.

If you want to take a peek under the hood and understand your menstrual cycleand how it affects you, here are some tips to get you started.

Whether you use an app, a fitness tracker, or pen and paper, the first step is to commit to tracking your menstrual cycle and determine its length. Not every womans period is a textbook 28 days, Sims says. Cycle length can vary greatly from woman to woman, and even fluctuate from month to month. Even women at the same phase of their cycles can have vastly different experiences and symptoms, so its important to understand the influence of hormones in your own body.

Sims also recommends using an at-home ovulation predictor kit to determine when youre ovulating, especially if your app doesnt provide this information. (Clue does. FitrWoman doesnt.) This will tell you more precisely when youre entering the higher-hormone luteal phase of your cycle.

If youre taking hormonal birth control, its a little more complicated. For IUD users, you still experience natural hormonal fluctuations, even if you dont get a period, and can track your cycle and find your monthly patterns. However, if youre on combined hormonal birth control, you dont experience the same high- and low-hormone phases, since the contraceptive provides stable levels of estrogen and progesterone for three weeks out of every month. You can track, but youre not going to have the same benefit as if you were using your natural cycle, Sims says. While you may identify days when you feel good and bad, the whole concept of employing specific strategies for high-hormone versus low-hormone phases doesnt apply.

Sims recommends tracking your cycle for at least three months. This will begin to give you enough data so that you can start to see trends. If you track for one or two months, what you experience may just be an off day, she says. But if it happens three times, then you know there may be a real pattern. Overlay this information with your training log to spot connections between the menstrual cycle and workouts and races.

While the research isnt quite strong enough yet to make general recommendations, simply increasing your body literacy is beneficial. Ross, the UK-based physiologist, says that when youre in tune with the physical and emotional experience of your cycle, you may be more confident in planning your training, nutrition, and recovery, which can eliminate a lot of anxiety.

Once you notice patterns, begin to dial in your training and nutrition. It doesnt have to be prescriptive like, Im in a low-hormone phase so Im going to do high-intensity training this day, this day, and this day, Sims says. Instead, use those patterns as signals for when to ramp up activities or take things down a notch.

For example, during the high-hormone phase when women are likely to feel flat physiologically, its not the best time to work hard. Instead, focus on technique like running drills. With drills, you get the neuromuscular stimulus when the body is tired. Then, when you do the same drills when hormones are more optimal, youll perform that much better, says Sims.

While listen to your body feels like clich advice, its still a good mantra. Every womans experience is different across her cycle, and theres no one-size-fits-all template. Pay attention to whats happening and make reasonable adjustments based on your personal experience.

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Everything You Need to Know About Period Tracking - Outside