More Vitamin K Intake Linked to Reduced Risk of Diabetes

Individuals with a high intake of vitamin K were found to have lower blood glucose and less insulin resistance, as well as a reduced risk of developing type II diabetes, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis.*

Meta-analysis of five observational studies that examined the association between reported daily vitamin K intake and the development of type II diabetes among 105,798 participants found a 21% lower risk of developing the disease among those whose intake was highest compared with those whose intake was lowest.

Meta-analysis of seven controlled trials compared the effects of treatment with vitamin K1 or K2 to a placebo or multivitamin formula that did not contain vitamin K. The decline in glucose from levels measured at the beginning of the trials was significantly greater at the end of the trials among diabetics who received vitamin K in comparison with those who did not receive it.

Editor's Note: A significant reduction was also found in insulin resistance among participants who received vitamin K2 compared with the control group.

* Food Funct. 2023 Oct 2;14(19):8951-8963.

Thiamine (Vitamin B1) May Improve Heart Attack Survival Rate

Heart attack patients admitted to an intensive care unit frequently suffer from thiamine insufficiency. Therefore giving thiamine (vitamin B1) had a lower risk of dying in the hospital, as well as a lower mortality risk after 30 and 90 days, a retrospective, observational study showed.*

The study included 1,782 men and women who were admitted to an intensive care unit for a heart attack for at least 48 hours. One hundred seventy patients were given thiamine, while the other 1,612 were not.

Patients who were given thiamine had a 39.5% lower adjusted risk of in-hospital mortality than those who did not receive the vitamin. The thiamine group also had a 30-day adjusted mortality risk that was 38.2% lower and a 90-day mortality risk that was 37.4% lower than those who did not receive the vitamin.

Editor's Note: "Thiamine deficiency may aggravate endothelial dysfunction and chronic vascular inflammation, resulting in the loss of arterial vascular resistance that eventually develops into CVD [cardiovascular disease]. Therefore, thiamine supplementation may provide an unexpected benefit to the prognosis and outcome in patients with CVD," the authors stated.

* Front Nutr. 2023 Aug 29;10:1227974.

Less Slow-Wave Sleep Increases Risk of Dementia

Lack of slow-wave sleep over time can increase the risk of dementia, according to a study published in JAMA Neurology.*

Slow-wave sleep is a phase of deep, restorative sleep in which the body that facilitates removal of potentially harmful substances from the brain, such as beta amyloid plaque.

This study included 346 people averaging 69 years old who had participated in the Framingham Heart Study and had completed two overnight sleep studies. The researchers tracked the risk of developing dementia for up to 17 years after the two sleep studies.

First, the researchers found that aging itself was associated with a decline in slow-wave sleep, which accelerated from age 60 to age 80.

Then, they determined that for each percentage decrease in slow-wave sleep per year, there was a 27% increased risk of all-cause dementia, and a 32% increased risk of Alzheimer"s dementia.

Editor's note: The researchers found that individuals who experienced declines in slow-wave sleep were more likely to have heart disease, to take medications that impact sleep, and to carry the APOE4 gene that increases Alzheimer"s risk.

*JAMA Neurol. 2023; 10.1001/jamaneurol.2023.3889.

Higher DHA Levels Associated with Lower Risk of Age-Related Hearing Loss

Higher plasma levels of the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) have been          linked to a lower risk of hearing loss in middle-aged and older adults, according to research presented at NUTRITION 2023, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.*

Researchers evaluated data from participants in the UK Biobank, which included men and women between the ages of 40 and 69 from 2007 to 2010. Information was available from 115,303 participants concerning whether they had difficulty hearing, from 113,134 respondents concerning if they had difficulty following a conversation if there is background noise, and from 71,368 regarding hearing-aid use.

Individuals whose plasma DHA was among the top 20% of individuals in the study had an 8% to 20% lower risk of reporting hearing issues than those whose DHA was among the lowest 20%.

People in the top 20% of blood DHA levels were 16% less likely to answer "yes" to the question 'do you have difficulty hearing' compared with those in the lowest 20% of DHA levels.

Editor's Note: Plasma DHA was assessed as the percentage of total plasma fatty acids.

*https://nutrition.org/upping-your-intake-of-omega-3s-may-help-protect-your-hearing/