Kathryn B. H. Clancy, PhD

Wednesday, September 15th 2010

AAPA abstracts: foods that impact system inflammation, and why we shouldn’t give hormonal contraceptives to twelve year olds

Today is the deadline for submission of abstracts to the American Association of Physical Anthropology meetings that take place in mid-April (don’t get me started on the difficulty of anticipating where your research will be in seven months!). I was lucky enough to be involved in two special symposia: one organized by myself and the always-amazing Julienne Rutherford, the other by also-fantastic Grazyna Jasienska and Diana Sherry. I thought I would share them so you can see what I’m up to. I also want to notice the significant efforts of four different undergraduates in this research, all of whom have author credit in the abstracts. My research would not be possible without the many undergraduates in my laboratory.

Here’s the first abstract:

Pro- and anti-inflammatory food proteins and their impact on maternal ecology

KATHRYN B.H. CLANCY¹, KATHERINE E. TRIBBLE², and LAURA D. KLEIN^3
1Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ²School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ³School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Undiagnosed gluten intolerance can lead to a number of serious fertility issues, including recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility. Independent of an immune response to gluten, diets high in refined carbohydrates, trans and saturated fatty acids, and sugar promote inflammation through the overproduction of pro-inflammatory cytokines. The overconsumption of refined carbohydrates (processed cereal grains as well as sugar) leads to high selectin-carbohydrate interactions that promote adhesion mechanisms that then help direct leukocytes to regions of inflammation. This suggests that a high carbohydrate diet may produce inflammation even in individuals who do not have food intolerances. In contrast, prebiotics and probiotics (soluble fiber and bacterial cultures found in foods like yogurt) promote an anti-inflammatory response. Prebiotics, or soluble fiber, stimulate growth and activity of bacteria in the digestive system and has a local anti-inflammatory effect. Fermentation of soluble fiber by GI bacteria generates short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), some of which are histone inhibitors and thus have the greatest potential role in immunity and inflammation.

This work reviews the potentially contrasting effects of many cereal grains and fiber content on local inflammation, which likely impacts pregnancy success. However, the relationship between systemic inflammation and cereal grains has not been tested. Thus, we also report the initial results from a pilot study to examine the relationship between C-reactive protein, a biomarker for inflammation used in clinical work and shown to correlate with pregnancy loss, and autoantibodies to gluten, as the first examination of this relationship.

This study was funded by the University of Illinois Hewlett International Travel Grant.

This abstract is part of the symposium titled “Eating for two: maternal ecology and nutrition in human and non-human primates,” organized by Kathryn Clancy and Julienne Rutherford

This abstract comes out of literature review I have been doing for the last year or so, and a pilot project largely executed by Laura Klein this past summer. The field notes for my time at the Mogielica Human Ecology Study Site are up, and I hope at some point Laura will also share her experiences and perspective.

Here is the second abstract:

Variation in adolescent menstrual cycles, doctor-patient relationships, and why we shouldn’t prescribe hormonal contraceptives to twelve year olds

THERESA EMMERLING¹, ASHLEY HIGGINS¹, and KATHRYN B.H. CLANCY^2
1Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, ²Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Despite evidence that demonstrates the fundamental characteristics of adolescent menstrual cycles are variability and frequent anovulation, young girls, particularly in the United States, are regularly prescribed hormonal contraceptives to control irregularity. Though it takes five years or more to achieve regular ovulatory cycles, girls as young as twelve are visiting their doctors with complaints of infrequent cycles and being diagnosed with amenorrhea. Some medical doctors suggest a more stringent determination of amenorrhea in adolescents than in adults, from six months down to only three months without menses. We suggest that the use of hormonal contraceptives in young girls can have negative health consequences related to lifetime estrogen exposure, including breast cancer.

We propose several reasons for this phenomenon of very early hormonal contraceptive use. First, doctors and patients are largely unaware of the body of evidence showing that variation in cycle length and anovulation are normal and healthy in adolescents. Second, doctors often assume that young girls who report menstrual irregularity do so in order to secure hormonal contraceptives to have safe sex, but feel prohibited or embarrassed from asking outright. Finally, doctors are mired in a health system that mimics a customer support model, where they are expected to end symptoms. We suggest that a large number of young girls may visit their doctors for these issues under duress of their parents, or to seek reassurance from an expert that they are normal, but not necessarily to secure contraception.

This abstract is part of the symposium titled “Evolution and Health over the Life Course,” organized by Grazyna Jasienska and Diana Sherry.

The work for this abstract arose out of personal rants of my own over the last decade regarding the ubiquity of hormonal contraceptives for off-label use to treat “irregularity,” and then a special blend of brilliant colleagues at the Early Development and Reproductive Health Workshop at the Evolution of Diseases of the Modern Environment Symposium, which was part of the World Health Summit last year. These colleagues helped me focus my thinking, and Ben Campbell, Grazyna Jasienska and I produced this document out of that workshop. I then had two students who needed senior projects and had an interest in the topic, Theresa and Ashley, who did a bang-up job finding some great articles to provide evidence-based heft to our concerns. We are following up on this project this fall.

Tuesday, September 14th 2010

Field notes 2010: The end of my trip

This is the fourth and final installment chronicling my visit to the Mogielica Human Ecology Study Site this summer. Here are parts one, two and three.

After our lumber adventure, we get cleaned up and start the multi-stage process of getting back to Krakow. I had planned on staying another night, until we discovered that the following day was a holiday and the buses wouldn’t be running. Heidi got a room in a hostel for her, Laura and I and we had a nice, relaxing afternoon drinking smoothies and talking (a good chunk of which involved me telling my birth story with Joan). Then Andrzej joined us and we did a little shopping at the new mall – I can’t go anywhere without looking for something for Joan – and then to a lingering, extravagant dinner at a very nice restaurant. We had kompot, which is water steeped in fruit and sugar, often plums and cherries. I had Lithuanian beet soup – it was exactly the way my grandmother used to make it. Then I got a salad with duck, orange and these lovely, dark pistachios. Laura found a friendly green caterpillar in her salad so it was on the house. Then Laura and I ordered dessert, which we all shared, and Andrzej and Heidi got some prosecco to celebrate his birthday. We lingered over Laura’s chocolate ice cream with liquer and cherries, and my mascarpone mousse and strawberries.

Laura and I headed back to the hostel soon after, for Heidi and Andrzej are made of tougher stuff. The hostel was a decent one, and even though I was horribly sticky from the hot, humid, motionless air, I slept well.

* * *
The next day all the shops were closed for a holiday, but we had a nice time wandering around, checking into my hotel, sitting in tea shops and reading. We met Ilona at Chlopskie Jadlo and I had wonderful golombki, or stuffed cabbage – they were able to make me a gluten free mushroom sauce that was amazing, and I don’t even like mushrooms. Ilona’s little son Karol was adorable and smiley and silly, a four and a half month old bundle of love. He made my heart ache for my Joan.

After that, Laura and Heidi had to go back to the field site, and Ilona had to take Karol home. I went back to my room and worked all night and into the morning.

* * *
The next day I worked all morning, showered, went out to lunch, shopped for my family, worked some more, then had one last tea with Ilona at Bunkier. Bunkier is a great café that is outdoors but protected by an awning – we were grateful for this as there were terrible thunderstorms – and faces the planty, the green space that surrounds the stare miasto, or old town. Bunkier is also quite kid friendly, with sandboxes and toys along the edge of the café.

Ilona and I had a wonderful time talking about work, children, our future plans. Ilona is so smart and funny, and though we hadn’t seen each other in five years we picked up where we left off, an easy, comfortable friendship.

I had wanted to do just a little more shopping, but everything was closed by the time we finished. My laptop was calling, and the rain was cold, so I gladly went back to my room to work.

The next morning I caught the five am train to the airport (which was not without incident, as I dropped my wallet on the walk over and didn’t realize until I got on the train. I had to retrace my steps at a full run with all my luggage, and made it back to the train just in time). I otherwise had a very boring trip home, thinking of the family waiting for me almost every waking hour.

Even though it was a short trip, my time in the field was invaluable. I learned a lot about how things have changed, how they haven’t; I renewed friendships; I explored the practicalities of my future project plans. I did all the things I couldn’t have done by phone or email, and this year’s grants and next year’s projects will be the better for it.

But it’s good, really good, to be home.

Monday, September 13th 2010

Around the web: sexual selection

The “Around the Web” series highlights informative websites, and also targeted blog posts and news articles, relevant to the courses I teach. This semester I teach Anth 143: Biology of Human Behavior, an introductory-level course that covers the basics of evolution, behavioral biology, and the interaction of biology and culture. My hope is that these posts are useful not only for my current students, but other people hoping to gain background or insight into these topics.

There are a few good resources out there, and numerous news article and blog posts, on sexual selection.

First, of course, there is the PBS Evolution series, where you can view parts of the Why Sex? film and even play some games to teach you about evolution and sexual selection. Go here for the main page, and here for the Why Sex?-specific page.

Next are two wonderful lectures by Professor Stephen Stearns at Yale University. I was lucky enough to take one class with him when I was a graduate student myself. His two lectures are The Evolution of Sex and Sexual Selection.

Here is a blog post reviewing the most common hypotheses regarding the evolution of human breasts (hint: it may involve sexual selection!).

This is another one from Greg Laden’s Falsehood series, entitled “Falsehood: A baby is not the biological offspring of its adoptive mother.” This bleeds into content about parenting, but I think it’s important for us to not see sexual selection and reproductive fitness in black and white terms.

And now a few good ones from Ed Yong, author of Not Exactly Rocket Science: Male water striders summon predators to blackmail females into having sex. This post looks at recent work on male water strider behavior to acquire matings with females. This will also be relevant when we talk about sexual coercion later. Female birds breed better in captivity if they see sexy males. Also a fun read! This post highlights work on attempts to increase the breeding success of captive Houbara bustard. This is an important example of the ways in which behavior can impact physiology, a causal relationship that we often assume to only go the other way (for instance, that testosterone causes aggression).