Research Insights
Insights are moderated by the Research Hub team and offer an at-a-glance overview of interesting research findings.
Carotenoid-rich foods like orange carrots were more effective in mitigating Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease than those with low carotenoid levels.
Experimental Study Carrot NAFLD
In this study, male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to one of four experimental diets for a period of 15 weeks: a low-fat diet, a high-fat diet, a high-fat diet with 20% white carrot powders, or a high-fat diet with 20% orange carrot powders.
Observations revealed that those mice on the high-fat diet enriched with carotenoids from the orange carrots gained less weight and displayed less hepatic lipid deposition compared to the white carrot group. Moreover, lower levels of triglyceride content were seen in the orange carrot group. The increase of particular proteins indicated that carotenoids found in orange carrots improved β-oxidation, thereby inhibiting NAFLD development more significantly. Further examination showed noticeably higher mRNA and protein levels of a particular transcription factor.
View Article
Sleep quality in adults with disturbed sleep improved significantly after an 8-week course of naturally-derived sleep-inducing juice made from lettuce, orange, pineapple and cherry.
Randomised Controlled Trial Heart Rate Variability Lettuce Pineapple
This randomized, crossover study involved 25 adults (15 female, 10 male), all of whom reported difficulties in initiating or maintaining nighttime sleep. During the intervention, known as the feeding sessions (FS), the participants were given a sleep-inducing juice made of natural ingredients, being provided 250ml twice a day for 8 weeks. Their sleep quality and other related parameters were tracked with wearable actigraphs over seven consecutive days. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores were assessed before and after this juice intervention. The subjects' heart rate variability (HRV), both at rest and during sleep, was also closely monitored.
After the participants had undergone the 8-week juice intervention (FS), the PSQI scores decreased substantially, a change which directly correlated with a significant decrease in fatigue severity scale and visual analogue scale levels. Notably, heart rate variability indices indicative of vagal activity were significantly improved during the FS. The sleep efficiency and the total sleep time of the subjects increased significantly; at the same time, sleep latency and other disruptive factors like total counts, sleep fragmentation index, and movement index decreased significantly. There weren’t any significant differences observed during the non-feeding sessions (N-FS). Overall, the study results showed that the targeted intake of the sleep-inducing juice improved not only the sleep quality, but also led to an enhanced cardiac vagal tone during sleep.
View Article
Study Protocols
Published study protocols are detailed plans that outline the objectives, methodology, statistical analyses, and organisation of a research study that have been made publicly available for others to review and use as a reference.
Presentation Slides
Chinese Medicine Research Hub
Experimental Study
Carotenoid-rich foods like orange carrots were more effective in mitigating Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease than those with low carotenoid levels.
2022 Frontiers in Nutrition Carotenoids in orange carrots mitigate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease progression
Balbuena E, Cheng J, Eroglu A
Chinese Medicine Research Hub
Randomised Controlled Trial
Sleep quality in adults with disturbed sleep improved significantly after an 8-week course of naturally-derived sleep-inducing juice made from lettuce, orange, pineapple and cherry.
2020 Nutrition Research and Practice Effects of sleep-inducing juice on sleep quality and heart rate variability in adults with disturbed sleep
Kim C, Kim M, Kim M, Jung H
Executive Summary
Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Research into Chinese medicine treatment for Orange" summarising the research below and using language that can be easily understood by patients and avoiding medical jargon using a professional and caring tone of voice.
Write an executive summary in the form of a blog article on the topic of "Researched Chinese medicine treatments for Orange" summarising the research below in an objective and easy to understand way, and using language that can be easily understood by patients. Group the article into Chinese medicine treatments first, followed by nutrition and other treatments. Avoid using medical jargon and use a professional and caring tone of voice.
Write me a concise but easy to understand executive summary on the topic of "Chinese medicine treatments for Orange" based on the following research that I will give you. Your summary should be 2 paragraphs long in Australian English spelling and include references to the studies.
A Experimental Study published in 2022 in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition found that Carotenoid-rich foods like orange carrots were more effective in mitigating Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease than those with low carotenoid levels. In this study, male C57BL/6J mice were randomly assigned to one of four experimental diets for a period of 15 weeks: a low-fat diet, a high-fat diet, a high-fat diet with 20% white carrot powders, or a high-fat diet with 20% orange carrot powders.
Observations revealed that those mice on the high-fat diet enriched with carotenoids from the orange carrots gained less weight and displayed less hepatic lipid deposition compared to the white carrot group. Moreover, lower levels of triglyceride content were seen in the orange carrot group. The increase of particular proteins indicated that carotenoids found in orange carrots improved β-oxidation, thereby inhibiting NAFLD development more significantly. Further examination showed noticeably higher mRNA and protein levels of a particular transcription factor.
A Randomised Controlled Trial published in 2020 in the journal Nutrition Research and Practice found that Sleep quality in adults with disturbed sleep improved significantly after an 8-week course of naturally-derived sleep-inducing juice made from lettuce, orange, pineapple and cherry. This randomized, crossover study involved 25 adults (15 female, 10 male), all of whom reported difficulties in initiating or maintaining nighttime sleep. During the intervention, known as the feeding sessions (FS), the participants were given a sleep-inducing juice made of natural ingredients, being provided 250ml twice a day for 8 weeks. Their sleep quality and other related parameters were tracked with wearable actigraphs over seven consecutive days. The Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) scores were assessed before and after this juice intervention. The subjects' heart rate variability (HRV), both at rest and during sleep, was also closely monitored.
After the participants had undergone the 8-week juice intervention (FS), the PSQI scores decreased substantially, a change which directly correlated with a significant decrease in fatigue severity scale and visual analogue scale levels. Notably, heart rate variability indices indicative of vagal activity were significantly improved during the FS. The sleep efficiency and the total sleep time of the subjects increased significantly; at the same time, sleep latency and other disruptive factors like total counts, sleep fragmentation index, and movement index decreased significantly. There weren’t any significant differences observed during the non-feeding sessions (N-FS). Overall, the study results showed that the targeted intake of the sleep-inducing juice improved not only the sleep quality, but also led to an enhanced cardiac vagal tone during sleep.