Increased BMI associated with decreased breastfeeding initiation in Million Veteran Program participants.

Background: Breastfeeding has been associated with maternal and infant health benefits but has been inversely associated with body mass index (BMI) prepartum. Breastfeeding and BMI are both linked to socioeconomic factors.

Methods: Data from parous female participants with available breastfeeding information from the Million Veteran Program cohort was included.

Genetic evidence for causal relationships between age at natural menopause and the risk of ageing-associated adverse health outcomes.

Background: A later age at natural menopause (ANM) has been linked to several ageing-associated traits including an increased risk of breast and endometrial cancer and a decreased risk of lung cancer, osteoporosis and Alzheimer disease. However, ANM is also related to several proxies for overall health that may confound these associations.

Methods: We investigated the causal association of ANM with these clinical outcomes using Mendelian randomization (MR).

Broad clinical manifestations of polygenic risk for coronary artery disease in the Women's Health Initiative.

Background: The genetic basis for coronary artery disease (CAD) risk is highly complex. Genome-wide polygenic risk scores (PRS) can help to quantify that risk, but the broader impacts of polygenic risk for CAD are not well characterized.

Methods: We measured polygenic risk for CAD using the meta genomic risk score, a previously validated genome-wide PRS, in a subset of genotyped participants from the Women's Health Initiative and applied a phenome-wide association study framework to assess associations between the PRS and a broad range of blood biomarkers, clinical measurements, and health outcomes.

Alcohol use and cardiometabolic risk in the UK Biobank: A Mendelian randomization study.

Observational studies suggest alcohol use promotes the development of some adverse cardiometabolic traits but protects against others including outcomes related to coronary artery disease. We used Mendelian randomization (MR) to explore causal relationships between the degree of alcohol consumption and several cardiometabolic traits in the UK Biobank. Using the well-established ADH1B Arg47His variant (rs1229984) and up to 24 additional SNPs recently found to be associated with alcohol consumption in an independent dataset as instruments, we conducted two-stage least squares and inverse weighted variance MR analyses, both as one-sample analyses in the UK Biobank and as two-sample analyses in external consortia.

Decreasing human body temperature in the United States since the industrial revolution.

In the US, the normal, oral temperature of adults is, on average, lower than the canonical 37°C established in the 19 century. We postulated that body temperature has decreased over time. Using measurements from three cohorts--the Union Army Veterans of the Civil War (N = 23,710; measurement years 1860-1940), the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I (N = 15,301; 1971-1975), and the Stanford Translational Research Integrated Database Environment (N = 150,280; 2007-2017)--we determined that mean body temperature in men and women, after adjusting for age, height, weight and, in some models date and time of day, has decreased monotonically by 0.

Comparison of two methods - regression predictive model and intake shift model - for adjusting self-reported dietary recall of total energy intake of populations.

Daily dietary intake data derived from self-reported dietary recall surveys are widely considered inaccurate. In this study, methods were developed for adjusting these dietary recalls to more plausible values. In a simulation model of two National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), NHANES I and NHANES 2007-2008, a predicted one-third of raw data fell outside a range of physiologically plausible bounds for dietary intake (designated a 33% failure rate baseline).

Urinary triclosan is associated with elevated body mass index in NHANES.

Background: Triclosan-a ubiquitous chemical in toothpastes, soaps, and household cleaning supplies-has the potential to alter both gut microbiota and endocrine function and thereby affect body weight.

Methods: We investigated the relationship between triclosan and body mass index (BMI) using National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) from 2003-2008. BMI and spot urinary triclosan levels were obtained from adults.