DR MICHAEL MOSLEY: How being a bit of a Neanderthal can help you stave off Covid

By Liam On Oct 21, 2023

When it comes to pain, I like to think I’m pretty tough, but when I was recently asked to take part in a study on pain, I came out pretty bad.

This was for a TV show I make about sleep, and we looked at the extent to which a poor night’s sleep reduces your ability to tolerate pain, which is important if you suffer from a chronic pain condition.

The test involved being blindfolded, putting my hands in a bucket of ice cold water and then seeing how long I could keep it there before the pain became unbearable.

I took this test before and after a night where I was deliberately sleep deprived and only had my eyes closed for four hours.

And while my pain threshold was lower when I was tired (I only lasted 90 seconds), it wasn’t as impressively high even when I was well rested (I only just reached two minutes).

So maybe I’m not as tough as I like to think – or maybe I can blame it on my Neanderthal genes.

A new study led by researchers at University College London has found that people who have inherited certain Neanderthal genes are much more sensitive to certain types of pain.

In fact, we all have them. And now, a new study led by researchers at University College London has found that people who have inherited certain Neanderthal genes are much more sensitive to certain types of pain (stabbing pain rather than heat or pressure pain) than those who don’t have them. .

Phones can spot early signs of depression

Social media and mobile phones are often blamed for the increase in poor mental health seen in people of all ages.

But can they also contribute to the solution?

One of the biggest problems for people with depression or anxiety is that their symptoms are often overlooked – and that’s where mobile phones can come into play, as they can track how we behave.

For example, a 2015 study from Northwestern University in the US found that simply using data from people’s phones could identify people with depressive symptoms with 87 percent accuracy.

One sign people could give away was the amount of time people spent on their phones: the more time they spent, the more likely they were to become depressed.

In this study, the average daily usage for depressed people was 68 minutes (which seems quite low to me), while for non-depressed people it was only about 17 minutes.

How far they traveled on an average day was also a powerful predictor because when people are depressed they are not motivated to go out and do things.

Now researchers are looking at whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems built into phones can make accurate predictions about our mental health based solely on our behavior.

I’m not sure if I find the idea of my phone reading my thoughts encouraging or disturbing.

The Neanderthals were a human species that lived long before our distant ancestors emerged from Africa about 70,000 years ago. At some point our ancestors must have linked up with Neanderthals, because we all carry a little bit of their DNA.

The Neanderthals became extinct about 30,000 years ago, leaving us as the only remaining human species on Earth.

But they left a valuable legacy in the form of genes, which continue to shape our lives.

Neanderthal DNA makes up about one percent of our genes, but when I recently sent a sample of my saliva to a DNA ancestry website, I was told that almost 2 percent of my DNA must come from Neanderthal ancestors and that I have more Neanderthal am. than most people they tested.

So what does this all mean for us today? First of all, as the recent research shows, it affects our response to pain. The researchers made this discovery by measuring the pain thresholds of nearly 2,000 people, after testing their blood for three specific Neanderthal genes previously identified as likely to lead to greater sensitivity to pain. They found that people who were more reactive to stabbing pain were more likely to have these genes.

Although the main reason we feel pain is to protect ourselves from harm (for example, if you accidentally put your hand on a hot surface, the pain causes you to move your hand away), it is not clear why we are more sensitive to pain would have been an advantage. particular advantage for Neanderthals, or why these genes have persisted in modern humans.

However, it does put a dent in the popular image of Neanderthals as callous animals. In addition to sensitivity to pain, Neanderthals also bequeathed us genes that influence the shape of our noses (researchers say this leads to “a longer nose,” but don’t say what that means); the thickness of our lips; and even the curve of our heads. More importantly, there is evidence that a certain Neanderthal gene increases a woman’s chance of giving birth to a healthy baby.

This was the suggestion of scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who analyzed the blood of more than 244,000 women and found that almost one in three had inherited an increased sensitivity to the hormone progesterone from Neanderthals.

Progesterone is a hormone that plays an important role during pregnancy and attaches to receptors throughout the body.

It doesn’t stop there. Recent research shows that genes inherited from Neanderthals help strengthen our immune system and protect us against deadly viruses, including, surprisingly, Covid-19.

The research from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan (published in the journal PNAS in February 2021) found that genes inherited from Neanderthals reduce the risk of becoming seriously ill if you get Covid-19 by about 20 percent .

These protective genes, which are present in half of us, work by producing enzymes that attack and destroy viruses. The fact that they are present in so many of us suggests that they perform an important task.

It is remarkable that another species continues to protect and support us long after they have disappeared from the face of the earth.

Can eating onions make me stop craving chocolate chip cookies?

We know that fiber-rich foods are good for our gut, but a new study shows that eating certain types of fiber also changes our brains, reducing the need for sweet treats.

As someone who struggles to say no to a chocolate chip cookie, the findings piqued my interest.

This fascinating study was conducted by scientists at the University of Leipzig Medical Center in Germany, who scanned the brains of 59 middle-aged, overweight people while they were shown images of food, including sweet treats; They were also asked to rate each treat simultaneously.

Over the next two weeks, they drank a drink rich in inulin (a type of fiber found in onions).

Over the next two weeks, they consumed a drink rich in inulin (a type of fiber found in onions, wheat and green bananas) or a placebo. They then returned to the laboratory to have their brains scanned again while looking at the same pictures.

Amazingly, the brain scans showed that the inulin had effectively reduced activity in reward areas of the brain; volunteers who consumed it also reported fewer cravings. These changes in the brain were accompanied by changes in the gut bacteria of the inulin group, with a significant increase in bifidobacteria; these are thought to trigger the release of GLP-1, another chemical in the gut.

This is the same chemical that is the target of the new weight loss “miracle drugs” that are creating a lot of excitement right now.

The researchers are now conducting a six-month follow-up study to see what impact inulin has on people’s eating behavior and weight.

Thanks to 3D printers, you can ‘print’ anything from shoes to weapons.

Scientists in Oxford University even shown that you can make new brain tissue, using ‘bio-ink’ made from cells create a suitable one form. The idea is that in the future, surgeons might be able to do that use this approach patching up people’s brains damaged by trauma, stroke or even cancer