AFTER examining the link between metabolites in urine and overall health, researchers created a 5-minute test to reveal a person’s nutritional fingerprint.
Research finds a new way to look at the relationship between what we eat and our health.
It might seem obvious that good nutrition is linked to good health. Still, it has proven difficult to identify specific links between foods and health outcomes. Two new studies from scientists at Imperial College London (ICL), United Kingdom, and various collaborators report insights from the analysis of metabolites in urine.
The researchers have created a 5-minute urine test that can capture a person’s “nutritional fingerprint.”
“Diet is a key contributor to human health and disease, though it is notoriously difficult to measure accurately because it relies on an individual’s ability to recall what and how much they ate. For instance, asking people to track their diets through apps or diaries can often lead to inaccurate reports about what they really eat.
Metabolites are molecules that the body produces during cellular metabolism, and some are measurable in a person’s urine.
Working with 1,848 study participants in the U.S., the researchers were able to identify associations between 46 different metabolites and food types.
“Through careful measurement of people’s diets and collection of their urine excreted over two 24-hour periods, we were able to establish links between dietary inputs and urinary output of metabolites that may help improve understanding of how our diets affect health. Healthful diets have a different pattern of metabolites in the urine than those associated with worse health outcomes.”
MINDFUL HYPNOTHERAPY MAY REDUCE STRESS: A new study shows that combining hypnotherapy with mindfulness training has a significant positive effect on stress levels.
Mindfulness is an ancient mental technique that is an acknowledged means of helping people manage stress and anxiety. It involves learning how to stop and become consciously aware of one’s present moment as a revitalizing respite from the ongoing rush of daily life.
A new study from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, finds that combining mindfulness with hypnotherapy may make its benefits more accessible.
It represents a novel use of hypnotherapy, which more commonly serves as a treatment for pain and symptom management.
