The effects of honey compared with sucrose and a sugar-free diet on neutrophil phagocytosis and lymphocyte numbers after long-term feeding in rats

To determine whether honey and sucrose would have differential effects on levels of neutrophil phagocytosis after long-term feeding 36 2-month old Sprague Dawley rats were fed a powdered diet that was either sugar-free or contained 7.9% sucrose or 10% honey (honey is 21% water) ad libitum for 52 weeks. The percent of neutrophils exhibiting phagocytosis, and the percentage of leukocytes that were lymphocytes were then measured by flow cytometry after 52 weeks. Results: Neutrophil phagocytosis was similar between sucrose- and honey-fed rats, and lower in rats fed the sugar-free diet (79.2%, 74.7% and 51.7 %, respectively). The percentage of leukocytes that were lymphocytes differed significantly between all three treatments, the levels being highest in honey-fed rats (53% vs 40.1% and 29.5% for sucrose- and sugar-free fed rats). In conclusion: Honey may have a beneficial effect on immune activity, possibly attenuating the decline seen in older age

An Investigation of the Health Benefits of Honey as a Replacement For Sugar In the Diet

Sugar (primarily sucrose) has been a part of the daily diet for literally hundreds of years, but research is now suggesting that sugar intake can be detrimental to our health. In particular, excessive consumption of simple sugars with high glycemic index (GI) values have been shown to cause overeating and weight gain. As well, elevated postprandial hyperglycemia can result after consuming sugars and this has been linked to disease formation and progression, the development of advanced glycation endproducts, inflammation and increased mortality rates. Honey has been recognised as having a number of beneficial health properties, including slower uptake into the bloodstream, a pharmacological action of reducing blood glucose levels and a high level of bioavailable antioxidants, all of which may mean that honey could be less harmful to health than sucrose in the diet. This study was therefore designed to investigate the health benefits of honey in the diet as a replacement for sucrose, using small animal studies. As well, because of the interest in using honey as a replacement for sucrose in sweetened dairy foods, a small number of in vitro investigations were carried out to determine whether honey could retain its bioactive properties when combined with milk/dairy products. Using the in vitro studies, it was shown that the combination of milk with honey had no effect on either the antibacterial or antioxidant capabilities of honey. During the animal feeding studies a number of significant findings were observed. In the earlier work it was shown that honey had a significant effect on protein metabolism when fed for 14 days at a level of 600 g/kg diet (comprising 480 g sugars and 120 g water) compared with animals fed an equivalent amount of sucrose. In this study, honey-fed rats exhibited significantly lower weight gains (p less than 0.001), food intake (p less than 0.05) and nitrogen intakes (p less than 0.05) and significantly higher faecal nitrogen outputs (p less than 0.05) compared with sucrose-fed rats. Animals fed a diet consisting of 480 g/kg of mixed sugars as in honey generally exhibited protein metabolism parameters that were comparable to those of the sucrose-fed rats, suggesting that the effects of honey on protein metabolism were not due solely to its distinctive sugar composition. Furthermore, in another study that specifically investigated the effects of honey on weight regulation, honey (100 g/kg diet) resulted in significantly reduced weight gain after 6 weeks (p less than 0.01) compared with animals fed the same amount of sugars as sucrose, although food intake was not reduced in this study. Percentage weight gains were shown to be comparable between honey-fed rats and those fed a sugar-free diet, suggesting that differences in glycemic control may be partly responsible for the results seen. Fasting lipid profiles and blood glucose levels were also measured in this study, but no significant differences were observed between diet groups. During long-term (12 months) feeding weight gain was again significantly reduced in rats fed honey (p less than 0.05) and a sugar-free diet (p less than 0.01) compared with those fed sucrose, the weights of honey-fed rats and those fed the sugar-free diet being comparable at the end of the study. In addition, blood glucose levels were significantly lower (p less than 0.001), and HDL-cholesterol levels significantly higher (p less than 0.05) in animals fed honey compared with those fed sucrose after 52 weeks, but no differences in these parameters were observed between rats fed sucrose and a sugar-free diet. No other significant differences in lipid profiles were observed. Immunity measures were improved after feeding honey or sucrose for 52 weeks, animals in both of these diet groups having significantly higher levels of neutrophil phagocytosis compared with those fed the sugar-free diet (both p less than 0.0001). In addition, the percentage of leukocytes that were lymphocytes was significantly higher in honey-fed rats at the end of the study. Furthermore, levels of oxidative damage in aortic collagen were significantly reduced in rats fed honey or the sugar-free diet (both p less than 0.05) compared with those fed sucrose after 52 weeks. Full body DEXA scans were also undertaken in this 12-month study to assess body fat levels and bone mineral composition and density, although they revealed few statistically significant differences. Percentage body fat levels were shown to be nearly 10% lower in honey-fed rats compared with sucrose-fed animals at the end of the study (p less than 0.05), but no other significant differences between diet groups were observed. With one exception, no differences in bone mineral composition or bone mineral density were observed between the three diet groups after 52 weeks. This data agreed with the results generated from two earlier studies that showed that feeding honey short-term (for 6-8 weeks) to rats that were either calcium-deficient or fed a low calcium diet had no effect on bone calcium levels, bone mineral content, bone mineral density or bone breaking parameters. Lastly, long-term feeding of honey to rats had a number of statistically significant effects on anxiety and cognitive performance when assessed using animal maze tasks. Anxiety-like behaviour was significantly reduced in honey-fed rats overall compared with those fed sucrose (p = 0.056) or a sugar free diet (p less than 0.05). Spatial memory was also better in honey fed-rats throughout the 12 month study, these animals not displaying the same degree of age-related spatial memory loss seen in the other two diet groups. No significant differences in recognition memory or learning capability were observed between diet groups after 52 weeks. In conclusion, both short-term and long-term feeding of honey result in a number of health benefits compared with eating similar amounts of sucrose. These include less weight gain, improved immunity, reduced levels of oxidative damage and improved cognitive performance.. These effects of honey are likely to occur through a number of different processes, although the presence of high concentrations of antioxidants and other minor components in honey are likely to be important contributors. Honey may therefore help to improve human heath if it is used as an alternative to sucrose in foods and beverages, although feeding studies in humans are required to assess its efficacy. In addition, more animal studies are needed to assess which features of honey (e.g. fructose content, antioxidant content and bioactivities) are required to achieve optimal effects, and to determine what impact heating and food processing may have on the beneficial health effects of honey

Glycemic-aware metrics and oversampling techniques for predicting blood glucose levels using machine learning.

Techniques using machine learning for short term blood glucose level prediction in patients with Type 1 Diabetes are investigated. This problem is significant for the development of effective artificial pancreas technology so accurate alerts (e.g. hypoglycemia alarms) and other forecasts can be generated. It is shown that two factors must be considered when selecting the best machine learning technique for blood glucose level regression: (i) the regression model performance metrics being used to select the model, and (ii) the preprocessing techniques required to account for the imbalanced time spent by patients in different portions of the glycemic range. Using standard benchmark data, it is demonstrated that different regression model/preprocessing technique combinations exhibit different accuracies depending on the glycemic subrange under consideration. Therefore technique selection depends on the type of alert required. Specific findings are that a linear Support Vector Regression-based model, trained with normal as well as polynomial features, is best for blood glucose level forecasting in the normal and hyperglycemic ranges while a Multilayer Perceptron trained on oversampled data is ideal for predictions in the hypoglycemic range

Kapital i kulturni hegemonizam: kratki historijski pregled »stranog elementa« u norveškom društvu

The paper examines from a historical perspective, certain socio-economic aspects of the indigenous Sami and foreign workers\u27 situation in Norway. The discussion deals first with the implications of concepts such as “homogeneous society” and second, using Edward Said\u27s notion of “flexible positional superiority”, analyzes the foreigner\u27s relationship to the dominant Norwegian society. In particular, the paper attempts to show that a combination of both economic interests and Western cultural hegemonistic attitudes have been used, historically and actually, in various ways to legitimize: a) arbitrary designations of “foreign” or “migrant” categories; b) internal colonialism and a policy of Norwegianization; and c) control and exclusion of particular foreign groups from the society.Ovaj rad obrađuje s povijesnog gledišta neke socioekonomske aspekte položaja indigenih Samija (Laponaca) i stranih radnika u Norveškoj. Raspravlja se prvo o implikacijama pojava poput »homogenog društva« a zatim, upotrebom Edward Saidovog pojma »fleksibilne pozicije superiornosti«, analizira se odnos stranaca prema dominantnom norveškom društvu. Rad posebno pokušava istaknuti kako su u povijesti i danas na razne načine kombinirani ekonomski interesi i hegemonistički stavovi »zapadne« kulture da bi se opravdalo: a) proizvoljno određivanje »strane« i »migrantske« kategorije, b) unutrašnja kolonizacija i politika ponorveživanja i c) kontrola i isključenje određenih stranih grupa iz društva

New Zealand breakfast cereals: are there sufficient low-sugar, low-sodium options?

We wish to respond to a letter by Gina Levy of Kellogg (Australia) Pty Ltd – Research and Technology, Australia entitled ‘The New Zealand breakfast cereal category is dynamic and responsive to consumer preferences’, published in Public Health Nutrition⁽¹⁾ in response to our published article ‘The nutritional quality of New Zealand breakfast cereals: an update’⁽²⁾. We thank the author for her interest in our publication and will respond to several of her comment

Increased risk of cardiovascular and renal disease, and diabetes for all women diagnosed with gestational diabetes mellitus in New Zealand:A national retrospective cohort study

Background: Gestational diabetes mellitus increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The aim of this study is to compare cardiometabolic and renal outcomes for all women in New Zealand with gestational diabetes (2001–2010) with women without diabetes, 10–20 years following delivery. Methods: A retrospective cohort study, utilizing a national dataset providing information for all women who gave birth between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2010 (n = 604 398). Adolescent girls <15 years, women ≥50 years and women with prepregnancy diabetes were excluded. In total 11 459 women were diagnosed with gestational diabetes and 11 447 were matched (for age and year of delivery) with 57 235 unexposed (control) women. A national hospital dataset was used to compare primary outcomes until 31 May 2021.Results: After controlling for ethnicity, women with gestational diabetes were significantly more likely than control women to develop diabetes—adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 20.06 and 95% confidence interval (CI) 18.46–21.79; a first cardiovascular event 2.19 (1.86–2.58); renal disease 6.34 (5.35–7.51) and all-cause mortality 1.55 (1.31–1.83), all p values <.0001. The HR and 95% CI remained similar after controlling for significant covariates: diabetes 18.89 (17.36–20.56), cardiovascular events 1.79 (1.52–2.12), renal disease 5.42 (4.55–6.45), and all-cause mortality 1.44 (1.21–1.70). When time-dependent diabetes was added to the model, significance remained for cardiovascular events 1.33 (1.10–1.61), p = .003 and renal disease 2.33 (1.88–2.88), p < .0001 but not all-cause mortality.Conclusions: Women diagnosed with gestational diabetes have an increased risk of adverse cardiometabolic and renal outcomes. Findings highlight the importance of follow-up screening for diabetes, cardiovascular risk factors, and renal disease

[Letter to the Editor] Sugar-sweetened beverages: still cause for concern in New Zealand and Australia

We would like to respond to the letter submitted to Public Health Nutrition by Ms Rich of the Food and Grocery Council of New Zealand(1) in response to our article ‘The nutritional content of supermarket beverages: a cross sectional analysis of New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK’ (2)

Metaheuristic optimization of insulin infusion protocols using historical data with validation using a patient simulator

Metaheuristic search algorithms are used to develop new protocols for optimal intravenous insulin infusion rate recommendations in scenarios involving hospital in-patients with Type 1 Diabetes. Two metaheuristic search algorithms are used, namely, Particle Swarm Optimization and Covariance Matrix Adaption Evolution Strategy. The Glucose Regulation for Intensive Care Patients (GRIP) serves as the starting point of the optimization process. We base our experiments on a methodology in the literature to evaluate the favorability of insulin protocols, with a dataset of blood glucose level/insulin infusion rate time series records from 16 patients obtained from the Waikato District Health Board. New and significantly better insulin infusion strategies than GRIP are discovered from the data through metaheuristic search. The newly discovered strategies are further validated and show good performance against various competitive benchmarks using a virtual patient simulator

Patient and carer perceived barriers to early presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Lung cancer is typically diagnosed at a late stage. Early presentation and detection of lung cancer symptoms is critical to improving survival but can be clinically complicated and as yet a robust screening method for diagnosis is not available in routine practice. Accordingly, the barriers to help-seeking behaviour and diagnosis need to be considered. This review aimed to document the barriers to early presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer, based on patient and carer perspectives. METHODS: A systematic review of databases was performed for original, English language articles discussing qualitative research on patient perceived barriers to early presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer. Three major databases were searched: Scopus, PubMed and EBSCOhost. References cited in the selected studies were searched for further relevant articles. RESULTS: Fourteen studies met inclusion criteria for review. Barriers were grouped into three categories: healthcare provider and system factors, patient factors and disease factors. CONCLUSIONS: Studies showed that the most frequently reported barriers to early presentation and diagnosis of lung cancer reported by patients and carers related to poor relationships between GPs and patients, a lack of access to services and care for patients, and a lack of awareness of lung cancer symptoms and treatment. Addressing these barriers offers opportunities by which rates of early diagnosis of lung cancer may be improved