Association between muscle dysmorphia psychopathology and binge eating in a large at-risk cohort of men and women.

BACKGROUND Current research on muscle dysmorphia (MD) has focused on restrained eating behaviors and has adopted a primarily male perspective. Despite initial evidence, the role of possible binge eating associated with MD has only been scarcely investigated. To extend the transdiagnostic and cross-gender approaches and address the dearth in research related to MD, this study investigated the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating in men and women. METHODS This study investigated the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating in both men and women. Participants were a sample of 5905 men (n = 422) and women (n = 5483) social media users aged 18-72 years. They completed an online survey that included self-report measures assessing demographics, binge eating, MD psychopathology, and drive for thinness and leanness. Binge eating was assessed using the diagnostic questions of the validated German version of the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire. The Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) was used to assess MD psychopathology. A total score of > 39 was set as a cutoff to define an "MD at-risk" state for both men and women. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating. RESULTS MD psychopathology was significantly positively associated with binge eating in both men and women. Among the three MDDI subscales, only appearance intolerance was significantly associated with MD, and drive for size and functional impairment were not associated. MD at-risk status yielded a predicted probability of binge eating of 25% for men and 66.9% for women. The increased probability of binge eating associated with MD at-risk status was mainly accounted for by appearance intolerance in men and drive for thinness in women. CONCLUSION MD psychopathology is positively associated with binge eating in both men and women. Binge eating episodes should therefore form part of the clinical assessment of MD

Association between muscle dysmorphia psychopathology and binge eating in a large at-risk cohort of men and women

Background Current research on muscle dysmorphia (MD) has focused on restrained eating behaviors and has adopted a primarily male perspective. Despite initial evidence, the role of possible binge eating associated with MD has only been scarcely investigated. To extend the transdiagnostic and cross-gender approaches and address the dearth in research related to MD, this study investigated the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating in men and women. Methods This study investigated the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating in both men and women. Participants were a sample of 5905 men (n = 422) and women (n = 5483) social media users aged 18–72 years. They completed an online survey that included self-report measures assessing demographics, binge eating, MD psychopathology, and drive for thinness and leanness. Binge eating was assessed using the diagnostic questions of the validated German version of the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire. The Muscle Dysmorphic Disorder Inventory (MDDI) was used to assess MD psychopathology. A total score of > 39 was set as a cutoff to define an “MD at-risk” state for both men and women. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the association between MD psychopathology and binge eating. Results MD psychopathology was significantly positively associated with binge eating in both men and women. Among the three MDDI subscales, only appearance intolerance was significantly associated with MD, and drive for size and functional impairment were not associated. MD at-risk status yielded a predicted probability of binge eating of 25% for men and 66.9% for women. The increased probability of binge eating associated with MD at-risk status was mainly accounted for by appearance intolerance in men and drive for thinness in women. Conclusion MD psychopathology is positively associated with binge eating in both men and women. Binge eating episodes should therefore form part of the clinical assessment of MD

Genital Herpes Has Played a More Important Role than Any Other Sexually Transmitted Infection in Driving HIV Prevalence in Africa

Extensive evidence from observational studies suggests a role for genital herpes in the HIV epidemic. A number of herpes vaccines are under development and several trials of the efficacy of HSV-2 treatment with acyclovir in reducing HIV acquisition, transmission, and disease progression have just reported their results or will report their results in the next year. The potential impact of these interventions requires a quantitative assessment of the magnitude of the synergy between HIV and HSV-2 at the population level.A deterministic compartmental model of HIV and HSV-2 dynamics and interactions was constructed. The nature of the epidemiologic synergy was explored qualitatively and quantitatively and compared to other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The results suggest a more substantial role for HSV-2 in fueling HIV spread in sub-Saharan Africa than other STIs. We estimate that in settings of high HSV-2 prevalence, such as Kisumu, Kenya, more than a quarter of incident HIV infections may have been attributed directly to HSV-2. HSV-2 has also contributed considerably to the onward transmission of HIV by increasing the pool of HIV positive persons in the population and may explain one-third of the differential HIV prevalence among the cities of the Four City study. Conversely, we estimate that HIV had only a small net impact on HSV-2 prevalence.HSV-2 role as a biological cofactor in HIV acquisition and transmission may have contributed substantially to HIV particularly by facilitating HIV spread among the low-risk population with stable long-term sexual partnerships. This finding suggests that prevention of HSV-2 infection through a prophylactic vaccine may be an effective intervention both in nascent epidemics with high HIV incidence in the high risk groups, and in established epidemics where a large portion of HIV transmission occurs in stable partnerships

Tannic Acid Modified Silver Nanoparticles Show Antiviral Activity in Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2 Infection

The interaction between silver nanoparticles and herpesviruses is attracting great interest due to their antiviral activity and possibility to use as microbicides for oral and anogenital herpes. In this work, we demonstrate that tannic acid modified silver nanoparticles sized 13 nm, 33 nm and 46 nm are capable of reducing HSV-2 infectivity both in vitro and in vivo. The antiviral activity of tannic acid modified silver nanoparticles was size-related, required direct interaction and blocked virus attachment, penetration and further spread. All tested tannic acid modified silver nanoparticles reduced both infection and inflammatory reaction in the mouse model of HSV-2 infection when used at infection or for a post-infection treatment. Smaller-sized nanoparticles induced production of cytokines and chemokines important for anti-viral response. The corresponding control buffers with tannic acid showed inferior antiviral effects in vitro and were ineffective in blocking in vivo infection. Our results show that tannic acid modified silver nanoparticles are good candidates for microbicides used in treatment of herpesvirus infections.This work was supported by the Polish National Science Centre grant No. 2011/03/B/NZ6/04878 (for MK) and Centre for Preclinical Research and Technology (CePT) Project No. POIG.02.02.00-14-024/08-0 (for MG and MD). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscrip