Daily Archives: April 21, 2021

The long sought-after fountain of youth may have been hidden in plain sight all along. Three new studies suggest strawberries may be associated with slowing down aging of the brain, cardiovascular system, and gut microbiome.

Keeping the mind sharp as we age

As a person ages, the brain can experience changes that result in impairments in learning, memory, gait, and balance. Sometimes these changes lead to early cognitive decline, disability, or falls among older adults.

In a recentstudyby Dr. Barbara Shukitt-Hale and her team at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 37 healthy older adults participated in a two-arm trial in which they consumed either freeze-dried strawberry powder beverages (24g/day, equivalent to two cups of fresh strawberries) or a calorie-matched control powder for 90 days. Participants completed a battery of balance, gait, and cognitive tests at baseline, midpoint, and conclusion of the trial.

Participants in the strawberry group performed better on spatial memory tasks and word recognition tests relative to those in the control group. These findings show that the addition of strawberry to the diets of healthy, older adults can improve some aspects of cognition, although more studies with a larger sample size and longer follow-up are needed to confirm this finding. Based on these promising results in healthy individuals, we are now conducting a study among older adults whose health is compromised and we expect to see even greater improvement following strawberry supplementation, said Dr. Shukitt-Hale.

This research comes on the heels ofrecent publicationsthat indicate diets higher in long-termflavonoid intake, from foods such as strawberries, could contribute to reducing the risk ofAlzheimers Disease and related dementias.

Young at heart

Endothelium is a thin layer of cells that lines every blood vessel in the body. Its responsible for the relaxation and constriction of veins and arteries, playing a major role in blood flow, blood pressure regulation, blood clotting, and wound healing. High total cholesterol and LDL (the bad cholesterol) can impair the function of the endothelium, clog arteries, and lead to heart disease, particularly in later years of life.

A newstudyfrom Dr. Britt Burton Freemans team of researchers at Illinois Institute of Technology asked middle-aged adults with moderately-high LDL cholesterol to drink beverages two times a day made from freeze-dried strawberry powder (25g in each) or a control powder for four weeks. After completing their first assigned beverage, they switched to the other one (strawberry/control) for an additional four weeks.

The health of the endothelium, measured by flow-mediated dilation, improved in the strawberry group one hour after drinking the beverage. Systolic blood pressure decreased two hours after drinking the strawberry beverage compared to the control, and this was more pronounced four weeks after the strawberry intervention.

The findings suggest that strawberries may improve endothelial function and be considered a specific food to include in a heart-healthy diet for aging adults with moderately-high cholesterol.

Promoting longevity bugs in the gut

Strawberries act as prebiotics and may increase gut bacteria associated with lean body weight, health, and longevity, according to a new study out of University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The pilotstudyled by Dr. Zhaoping Li and her team at the Center for Human Nutrition considered whether strawberries would alter the gut microbiota. Rich in vitamin C and polyphenols,strawberrieshave already shown their potential to decreaseLDL cholesterol,blood glucose,insulin resistance, andother disease risk factors. The gut microbiota is the next frontier for scientific exploration of strawberries impact on health.

Fourteen adults were asked to follow a beige diet low in fiber and polyphenols for 8 weeks. Two weeks in, a 13g strawberry powder drink was introduced to the diet twice a day, for four weeks. Then the participants returned to a beige-only diet for the two final weeks without strawberries.

Drinking strawberry powder beverages twice a day for four weeks was associated with an increase of 24 operational taxonomic units (OTUs), or gut microorganisms. Once the participants returned to a beige-only diet, several of the OTUs reversed back to their pre-strawberry status, suggesting strawberrys role in influencing the gut bacteria.

Dr. Li shared, Consumption of strawberry increased the abundance of gut microorganisms that could lead to lean body weight, better health, and longevity.

Something as simple as making strawberries a regular part of the diet may be the key to delaying aging of both the mind and the body.

California strawberries are grown by over 300 family farmers who produce nearly 90-percent of American-grown strawberries. Harvested year-round along the coast, California strawberries nutritional value is easy to remember: 8-8-50; 8 large strawberries have less than 8 grams of sugar and just under 50 calories. A growing body of scientific evidence demonstrates that strawberries can be part of eating patterns to improve cardiovascular, cognitive, metabolic, and gut health.

To learn more, visit http://www.californiastrawberries.com

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Air pollution affects the health of everyone everywhere. The World Health Organization estimates that outdoor ambient air pollution caused 4.2 million deaths in 2016. While many of these deaths are in low- and middle-income countries, the health effects are felt by people all around the world.

Air pollution is created in part by burning fuel, which releases particles into the air. There are many types of compounds that can contaminate the air, including ozone and nitrous oxides. Once released into the atmosphere, it is difficult to mitigate the effects of the pollutants. Instead, a better strategy is to prevent emissions before they occur.

Greater use of renewable energy has the potential to reduce emissions and lower air pollution levels. For example, a study published in February in the journal Renewable Energy reports an analysis of hybrid energy systems that pull energy from fossil fuel-based sources, as well as renewable energy sources. For a case study of Iran, the researchers found that if renewable energy made up more than 72 percent of the energy system that would reduce CO2 emissions by 2000 kg per household annually.

If governments were to put in place policies to reach that proportion of renewable energy production, they could reach this target very soon,said the studys first author Armin Razmjoo at the Universitat Politcnica de Catalunya in Spain in an email to The Hill.

The physical and mental health effects

Air pollution has been studied intensively for several decades, and the evidence for its negative effects on health has only grown.

The more we look the more we see in terms of different health outcomes that are associated with air pollution and then also the health effects at low levels of air pollution,said environmental epidemiologist Cathryn Tonne, an associate professor at ISGlobal, to The Hill.

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Some of the long-term healtheffects are directly related to inhalation of air pollution and particulate matter (PM), affecting the lungs. Researchers are also concerned about its effects on children, who because of their size are exposed to more pollution per surface area than adults.

Initially, much of the research focused on the respiratory system, which as you know is quite intuitive that your lungs would be impacted by what you breathe in, saidTonne. It's associated with such an enormous range of health outcomes.

It affects lung function and neurodevelopment, and in fetal development, it is also linked to preterm births. Other long-term health effects are related to the cardiovascular system, brain and even kidney function. A study published in 2018 in PLOS One found a connection between county level air pollution and prevalence of chronic kidney disease among the Medicare population.

Recent research has also tied air pollution levels to mental health and depression. For example, a study in Spain found links between increased air pollution concentration and increased odds of depression in a population over the span of five years. Other research has found links between increases in particulate matter and visits to the emergency room for mental health reasons.

Air pollution effects are really the most common diseases, says Tonne. You take diseases that are very common in a population and add air pollution, which leads to additional diseasein the population. That's where you really see the big burden thats attributable to air pollution.

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Environmental racism

Exposure to air pollution and other types of pollution are not equitable. Exposure is dictated by race,said author and ethicist Harriet Washington, who dives into environmental racism and its effects on African American communities in her book A Terrible Thing to Waste. It's because of our social and political behavior over the centuries, a long history of relegating African Americans to only being able to live in certain places, and in places that were the least desirable for human habitation.

We are seeing these health effects in Black communities and communities of color. Risk of death related to air pollution is higher among these populations, especially in men, Black people and people who are eligible for Medicaid, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. And environmental racism that increases exposure to pollution not only increases risk of mortality, it affects cognitive abilities and neurodevelopment, Washington discusses in her book.

On correlations and thresholds

Because of the nature of pollution exposure and how it is studied, much of what we know is based on correlations and long-term observational studies. But that does not make the evidence any less important.

We've developed a bad habit as a culture, in minimizing the importance of correlation,said Washington. In fact, if this evidence comes from different sources and all points to the same risk factor that lends power to the correlation. Sometimes correlations are the best evidence we can get.

We have to ask how powerful the correlations are, Washington said. If they are powerful enough to account for a good amount of the risk, then thats actionable, especially when considerate people's lives are being lost, she said. Sometimes these correlations tell us very powerfully that we have a source of injury.

Many air pollution studies in recent years have focused on low-level exposure to air pollution, like that found in many areas in Europe and the U.S.

They're looking at different health outcomes but almost universally find evidence of health effects at low levels of air pollution and in some cases really low levels of air pollution,said Tonne. So we're talking about Denmark, Sweden, parts of the US that have very, very low levels of air pollution.

For example, a study in Gothenburg, Sweden, found associations between low levels of air pollution and ischemic heart disease in all participants and stroke in women. The air pollution concentrations were around 13 and 9 micrograms per cubic meter for PM10 and PM2.5.

There seems to be no threshold, no safe level of air pollution, says Tonne. And this is concerning because the way air quality is regulated is often based on thresholds.

Regulating for our health

Many current air pollution regulations have established thresholds for pollution concentrations and may also focus on specific geographic hotspots. What policies could do instead of focusing on thresholds or hotspots is to focus on shifting the whole distribution of exposure in a population downwards,said Tonne. Policy should focus not just in urban areas where you might have exceedances under the current standards, but also in rural areas where there's still important air pollution from agriculture and other sources.

Governments could choose to focus on incentivizing renewable energy. For example, Denmark has achieved 30 percent renewable energy. Germany has done even better at nearly 52 percent renewable energy during the first three months of 2020.

There are some things we know to do that we simply aren't doing, Washington said. It's a staggering variety of ailments and incapacitation that is due to air pollution, and...we're not acting against it vigorously enough.

A version of this story appeared on The Hill.

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Longevity Live Paid Content. A perfume plays an important role in building up the personality. It boosts your confidence and also reflects your character. The kind of scent that you use tells very much about you, and it becomes your identity. Perfumes hold great importance in ones life. You feel anxious when you forget to wear perfume to go to someplace as small as the grocery shop.

You definitely would want people to adore you for the smell you have. Perfume keeps the odor away and makes you feel fresh and confident in yourself. Moreover, wearing perfume also plays a significant role in intimate relationships. Some perfumes are specially designed for this purpose.

Perfumes also make a great present to give to anybody. All in all, perfumes are interactive and an invention that is truly a blessing for human beings.

A famous quote about scents says, He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men. It is also said that a woman who does not wear perfume has no future.

The scent that you use tends to play a more important role than your visual appearance. The fragrance, when it complements your personality, becomes more beautiful, and it becomes a part of your style. You are recognized through your fragrance. And when you smell bad, it puts your negative impacts on others minds.

Also, the bad odor makes you vulnerable and does not make you feel good about yourself. It is also said that there is nothing that can be more reminiscent of time and place than the scent. And you need to pick up the right fragrance for you because once you have used a scent, it stays with you for a long time. Many people are quite choosy and selective when it comes to picking the fragrances for themselves. They do not share their perfume with anyone and stick to their favorite ones.

Thats how much perfume can be a personal matter. The perfume market has always been on the rise, and it is getting more flourished with each passing day. The brands can give their perfume boxes themes according to the seasonfor instance, blue for winters and red for summers. Impressionville offers custom boxes wholesalewith designs of your likes at affordable prices.

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The Boston giant is now advertising approximately 2,500 'client-facing' roles, in addition to the 5,150 it filled last year. It will also bump its technology headcount by 10% and hire 1,000 new financial planners.

Brooke's Note: What on Earth would possess Fidelity Investments to make 11,000 hires in a space of two years?After all, it's not a robo-advisor back filling human beings. It's a human-tilting company looking to be more of a big, giant robo-advisor. The answer requires all of the 1,200 or so words of this article because so much is happening at once both at a Fidelity level and more generally to investing. Fidelity needs more people for financial planning. It needs more people to re-engineer its offerings and processes toward automation and the advent of changes like cryptocurrency investing. Then, it also simply needs to keep pace with sheer capacity demands. So some of its moves are as simple as making hires. More complicated are the moves it's making to free payroll roster spots through buyouts of senior staff. It's also restructuring who it rewards and how -- namely less about seniority and more about merit. Yes, Fidelity needs to compete with Robinhood and the rest of Silicon Valley on technology. But that shift to competing on software starts with workforce management that more closely resembles Amazon or Google than Bank of America or Walmart.

Fidelity Investments is adding staff hand over fist; 4,000 are set to join 7,200 hired last year, whileselective employees are being offeredbuyouts, suggesting a corporate cultural shift.

How Fidelity views digital has noticeably shifted under the seven-year stewardship of CEO and chairwoman Abby Johnson, says a source.

"Earlier iterations chased the web and digital mostly to save money, and get rid of paper, but digital is Fidelity's future now," the source states.

Indeed, a key feature of Johnson's tenure has been her willingness to place strategic business bets -- at a pace more in keeping with start ups -- on emerging trends like crypto-currency or quantum computing. See: Fidelity Investments signals it's all in on blockchain-based currency.

The Boston company is riding the coat-tails of two trends -- its own growth and the COVID-19 amplified need for digital expertise, says Will Trout, director of wealth management at Pleasanton, Calif.,consultancy, Javelin Strategy & Research, via email.

"Its less about taking a piece of the pie from [say] Schwab and more about gearing up to serve an expanding market for tools and digitally enabled advice," he explains

"The irony is the extent to which all this digitization is fueling the hiring of human beings to support it," he adds.

That said, Fidelity has made hires for old-fashioned reasons too, including bolstering capacity.

"Fidelity, like many other financial services companies, experienced dramatic increases in call volumes, digital engagement, and daily trading volume," Johnson wrote in a recent letter.

The corporate shift is also a major step forwardfrom abank mentalitywhere a handful of superstar fund managers held sway and where each business line was a silo and fiefdom.

Now Fidelity is addressing the people side to compete with Silicon Valley -- Robinhood, Betterment, SoFi, among others --hiring the best people and ethically and fairly sending other less "digital" employees along.

The churn

Behind the hiring headline, a sizable portion of new arrivals may not significantly increase Fidelity's 47,000-strong headcount, sources state. The company also issued voluntary staff buyout offers (VBO) in letters sent out, Mar. 9.

The churn will likely meana re-peopling based on rewarding expertise relating to growth initiatives, says a source, via email.

"It's good old fashioned corporate inventory re-sizing. Out with the old and more expensive; in with the new and less expensive," the source states.

Fidelity confirmed the buyout lettersto Ignites, and stated that "investment professionals" won't receive them.

"The buyouts were offered to employees who had worked at the firm for at least 10 years as of June 30, whose tenure and age add up to at least 70 years," a company spokesman told the Financial Times online publication.

Severance includesan "attractive financial package and extended healthcare package," the Fidelity spokesman added.

In January a year ago, Fidelity slashed a profit-sharing program, a move that recruiters said at the time could touch off a senior executive exodus, and strategists said could aid productivity with parallels to its hiring now. See:Headhunters rejoice after Fidelity axes invincible (but expensive) executive bonus program to more narrowly focus rewards on productivity and execution

The brokerage declined to reveal whether it had to ramp up its internal recruitment and training processes to handle increased hiring, although a source describes its hiring process as "a patchwork quilt of recruiters, college hires and web-based marketing."

Rapidly increasing demand for financial planning has also added impetus to Fidelity's latest hiring spree, writes Mark Barlow, a senior vice president and general manager at the company, in a LinkedIn post.

"Fidelity Investments operating and financial performance in 2020 was one of the best in our 75-year history as a private company, and the pandemic this past year has had clients reaching out to us more and more for help in planning," he says.

The firm has also had to spread a wide net for planners, as demand for planning associates and certified financial planners (CFPs) surges. See: Facet Wealth is doubling in size every six months.

Fidelity has expanded its hiring apparatus by adding 20 new hiring locations, including Phoenix, Ariz., Baltimore, Md., and Detroit, Mich., according to a release.

"Growing our U.S. footprint ... will allow us to source diverse and innovative talent," says Barlow.

"Better to be out there hiring talent before others snap it up," adds Trout.

Nor will Fidelity limit itself solely to those who already hold a CFP qualification. New planning associates require a minimum series six, seven, and 9/10, or 24 licence.

Where Trout sees irony in Fidelity's latest hiring round, Steve Gresham sees synergy.

Gresham,managing principal of NYC consultancy, The Execution Project,spent nine years at Fidelity, between 2008 and 2017, most recently as head of its private client group.

"You cant hold $10-plus trillion in human hands alone, and the complexity of retail, workplace and platform clients demands a focus on different service models and complementary platforms," he explains, via email.

"Bricks and mortar, paper and people are all still in the mix, but the pandemic has accelerated adoption of digital alternatives. If you have to go online to get your vaccination appointment, why shouldnt you get retirement advice the same way?" he asks. See: Fidelity Investments loses Kathleen Murphy who largely caught up Fido to Schwab (near $4T) on the retail side by reversing net promoter scores.

In all, the Bostonbrokeragewill hire 2,500 client support staff, including a 10% bump to those serving its institutional and RIA business, 1,000 financial planners, 300 software engineers and data scientists, and a further 200 in undisclosed roles, the company announced earlier this month.

Fidelity has also boosted its overall headcount by 17.5% since January last year, when it employed 40,000 permanent staff. Discounting any potential lay-offs, Fidelity will employ 51,000 after its latest hiring round.

Of the 7,200 hires Fidelity made last year, 5,150 came in "client-facing'" positions, an increase of 77% year-over-year, according to the firm.

Today, women account for 39%, or 18,300 of its headcount, and 24%, or 11,200 Fidelity employees come from ethnically diverse backgrounds, according to the firm.

The hires ensure Fidelity can stay ahead of "record" growth across all lines of the business, says a company spokeswoman, via email.

"Fidelity is hiring to support our growing business and to continue to meet our customers' evolving needs today, and in the future," she says.

In March, RIAs opened the second highest number of accounts in the company's history, according to the firm.

The surge in demand for remote client service prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic also drove Fidelity's decision to up its headcount by 8.5%.

"In 2020, Fidelity rapidly accelerated hiring to maintain current and future service levels and to respond to increased call volumes, primarily driven by market uncertainty, customer demand, and record high volumes of new accounts among registered investment advisors (RIAs) that custody their assets with Fidelity," the firm states in arelease.

"We continue to scale our team as we onboard significant numbers of new accounts," adds the company's spokeswoman.

The number of daily average trades (DATs) made through brokerages like Fidelity and Schwab has sky-rocketed in the past twelve months.

In 2020, Fidelity averaged 2.3 million DATs, up 97% year-over-year, according to company data. On the retail side, Fidelity's DATs hit 1.4 million in 2020, up 164% year-over-year, Reuters reports.

Schwab posted an average of 8.4 million DATs, four times 2019 levels, including a single-day peak of 12.3 million, according to the firm's latest earnings release.

Today Fidelity administers $10.2 trillion, up from $8.2 trillion last January, including $3.9 trillion in managed assets.

Its move to add staff also comes against a backdrop of surging growth throughout theinvestment management industry.

Charles Schwab & Co., for instance, now administers $7.07 trillion*, up from $4.04 trillion in January 2020. See: Defying merger doubters, Schwab adds staggering $1.1 trillion RIA assets.

"Volumes overwhelmed even our most aggressive projections," Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger told investors in February. See: Walt Bettinger reveals Schwab projections got 'overwhelmed' by Covid-19-confined 'free' traders, but 'for now,' it's sticking with three-year window to wrap up TD Ameritrade merger.

The up-tick in the value of client assets administered by Schwab also includes those previously solely administered by TD Ameritrade. The merger closed October 2020. See: Despite dissenting Fed vote, Charles Schwab Corp. cleared to close TD merger Tuesday.

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We all understand that gut health is extremely important. Whether youre trying to manage hair lossor live longer, the best thing you can do for your health is to keep your gut happy. Not doing so can introduce a host of problems that range from diabetes and allergies to autism and inflammatory conditions. Additionally, for those struggling to lose those stubborn pounds, your gut bacteria could also be responsible for roadblocks in your weight loss journey.

In short, yes.

As weve mentioned, your gut helps to maintain the health of your body, and your gut microbes are quite involved in the bodys many functions, and this includes the regulation of your metabolism, digestion, and hunger.

There are a few ways that gut bacteria can influence your weight;

According to an article published in Scientific American, the overuse of antibiotics in the past few decades can be credited for the obesity epidemic.

The researchers of the article came to this conclusion by feeding young mice a steady, low dose of antibiotics similar to what farmers do when looking to fatten up their livestock. The researchers noted how antibiotics altered the mices gut bacteria, and it wasnt long before antibiotic-fed mice put on weight.

A more recent study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, found that children who receive antibiotics throughout the course of their childhood gain weight significantly faster than those who do not.

Why exactly do antibiotics disrupt your gut bacteria so much? Well, antibiotics are intended to address bacterial infections and when they enter your body, they dont know which bacteria are making you sick and which is helping you, so they sometimes inadvertently remove the good with the bad.

A study published in Cell Host Microbe found that fiber can help gut bacteria thrive, and this of course can encourage better health and weight loss (1).

For fiber-rich foods, opt for leafy green vegetables like kale and Swiss chard, artichokes, carrots, apples, bananas as well as nuts and seeds.

Foods rich in sugar and fats can trigger inflammation and this can be detrimental to your gut health (2).

Staying away from such foods wont only help you manage your weight, but it can also protect the health of your gut microbe.

If theres one thing your gut needs, its definitely probiotics. These microorganisms help to take care of your gut by fighting off bad bacteria and keeping your gut microbiome happy.

In regards to weight loss, probiotics have been found to help trigger the release of appetite-regulating hormones, which in turn can help to encourage weight loss (3).

The best way to get probiotics into your body is by eating fermented foods such as yogurt, pickles, kombucha, kefir, sauerkraut, and miso.

Evidently leading an active lifestyle can help you keep the weight off, but did you know that exercising can also support your gut bacteria?

According to a 2019 review published in Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews, increasing evidence suggests that regular aerobic exercise confers benefits to the gut microbiota, which may be partially responsible for the widespread benefits of regular physical activity on human health.

Poor sleep wont only increase your risk for weight gain by affecting your appetite, but it can also disrupt your gut microbiome. Thats at least according to one study that found that after two nights of partial sleep deprivation, participants experienced changes in their gut bacteria that were associated with different metabolic problems.

If youre struggling with getting proper sleep. heres our guide on how to sleep through a pandemic.

Yes, were living through a pandemic and things can get a little stressful. Thats understandable. However, its also important to note how stress can affect your health. From comfort eating to disrupting your digestive health, stress is not good for the body, and it needs to be managed.

This can be done with relaxing activities such as reading, meditation, and even gardening.

Your gut is important and each bacterium found in it is pretty special, so its important to take care of it. Even if weight loss isnt part of your 2021 journey, if you really want to stay on top of your health in the common months, then do everything you can to keep your gut happy.

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