Health

Detecting cognitive decline before its symptoms start

Megan Maneval — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 13:56:32 +0000

Detecting cognitive decline before its symptoms start Megan Maneval Mon, 11/18/2024 - 06:56

babyֱ��app Arts and Sciences Magazine

In his research on the brain, Daniel Gustavson looks for clues about when cognitive decline begins. Gustavson is an assistant research professor in the Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

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Social media posts reveal regional patterns in seasonal allergies

Megan Maneval — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 15:52:54 +0000

Social media posts reveal regional patterns in seasonal allergies Megan Maneval Fri, 11/15/2024 - 08:52

CIRES

Scientists from CIRES and CU Boulder harnessed social media data to track patterns in allergy intensity across the United States, finding an allergy hotspot in the Southeastern U.S., a winter allergy season in babyֱ��app and more.

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Prolonged sitting can sabotage health, even if you’re young and active

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 21:38:57 +0000

Prolonged sitting can sabotage health, even if you’re young and active Daniel William… Thu, 10/31/2024 - 15:38

Lisa Marshall

Between long commutes, Zoom-packed workdays and evenings of streaming and scrolling, millennials now spend more than 60 hours per week sitting, potentially boosting their heart disease risk and accelerating other signs of aging, according to new CU Boulder and University of California Riverside research.

The study of more than 1,000 former or current babyֱ��app residents, including 730 twins, is among the first to explore how prolonged sitting impacts health measures such as cholesterol and body mass index (BMI) in young adults.

It found that meeting the minimum recommended physical activity guidelines—about 20 minutes per day of moderate exercise—isn’t enough to counter the hazards of spending most waking hours in a seat.

“Our research suggests that sitting less throughout the day, getting more vigorous exercise, or a combination of both may be necessary to reduce the risk of premature aging in early adulthood,” said the study’s senior author Chandra Reynolds, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

Chandra Reynolds

For the study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, Reynolds teamed up with first author Ryan Bruellman, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics at UC Riverside.

After the COVID pandemic, Bruellman noticed that he and other people his age were sitting more. He set out to learn more about the consequences.

“Young adults tend to think they are impervious to the impacts of aging. They figure, ‘My metabolism is great, I don’t have to worry until I’m in my 50s or 60s,’” said Bruellman. “But what you do during this critical time of life matters.”

A walk after work isn’t enough

The authors analyzed data from participants ranging in age from 28 to 49, average age 33, from CU’s babyֱ��app Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan behavioral development and cognitive aging (CATSLife), which has followed twins and adopted individuals since childhood.

On average, participants reported sitting almost 9 hours daily, with some sitting as much as 16 hours. They reported between 80 and 160 minutes of moderate physical activity on average weekly and less than 135 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly. The authors note that these results are likely better than national averages due to babyֱ��app’s active lifestyle.

The researchers looked at two key measures of heart and metabolic aging: total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein and body mass index (BMI). The study found that, essentially, the more one sat, the older one looked. And adding a little moderate activity on top of a long day of sitting did little to buffer these impacts.

In fact, young adults who sat 8.5 hours per day and performed at or below current exercise recommendations could enter a “moderate to high risk” category for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the authors said.

“Taking a quick walk after work may not be enough,” said Reynolds. “While this is increasingly apparent with age, we show that associations are already emerging in early adulthood.”

Adding vigorous activity did have a buffering effect.

For instance, those who exercised vigorously (think running or cycling) for 30 minutes daily had cholesterol and BMI measures that looked like those of individuals five to 10 years younger who sat as much as they did but didn’t exercise.

But even vigorous activity could not fully buffer the negative impacts of prolonged sitting, the study concluded.

Same genes, different lifestyles

Identical twins are particularly useful to study because they share 100% of their genes, making it easier to rule out genetic factors that might contribute to different health outcomes and zero in on lifestyle differences.

When looking at a subset of twins with different sitting and physical activity habits, the researchers found that replacing sitting with exercise seemed to work better to improve cholesterol than simply adding exercise to a full day of sitting.

Bottom line, the researchers said: Try to do both.

Use a standing desk, take breaks and organize walking meetings to reduce sitting time at work. If possible, do something that gets you out of breath for at least 30 minutes per day, or be a “weekend warrior” getting in a longer, vigorous workouts when you can, said Bruellman.

He hopes the study will serve as a call to action for policymakers to revisit physical activity guidelines and specify how much sitting is too much.

Meanwhile, Reynolds encourages young adults to take steps now that could shape their future:

“This is the time to build habits that will benefit health over the long term.”

Young adults sit 60-plus hours per week, boosting their heart disease risk and accelerating signs of aging, according to new research. Vigorous exercise works best to counteract it, but sitting less is ideal.

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CUriosity: What causes the runner’s high?

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 19:33:54 +0000

CUriosity: What causes the runner’s high? Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/23/2024 - 13:33

Lisa Marshall , Nicholas Goda

In our new, bi-weekly series CUriosity, experts across the CU Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Psychology and Neuroscience Professor Angela Bryan, answers: “What causes the runner’s high?” (Hint: It may not be what you think.)

Runners cross the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York City. More than 51,000 runners will line up for this year's New York Marathon November 3. (Credit: CC photo via Wikimedia Commons)

It can set in after just a few miles: Nagging aches grow numb, sense of time slips away, colors brighten and thoughts grow crisp. Afterward, runners say they feel less anxious, stronger and more confident—even euphoric.

Previously in CUriosity

Why does playing in the dirt feel so good?

But what causes this legendary “runner’s high?”

For decades, scientists have suspected that endorphins and other “endogenous opioids”—pain killers made by our own bodies—are at play, coursing through our blood stream when we work out and attaching to the same receptors in the brain that drugs like morphine or oxycodone do.

But, Bryan says, running may actually be more like smoking a joint than taking a pain pill.

“For a long time, everybody thought that the runner’s high was caused by the activation of the endogenous opiate system, but we are now beginning to think it is actually the endogenous cannabinoid system instead,” she explains.

She would know: The psychologist often starts the morning with a run, then heads into her lab where she studies how cannabis, a.k.a. weed, affects the human body.

Cannabinoids are essentially the active ingredients in cannabis. Some “exogenous” (from outside the body) cannabinoids, like THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), promote intoxication. Others, like CBD (cannabidiol) quell inflammation and anxiety. The human spinal column and brain are rich in cannabinoid receptors that these compounds attach to when someone eats a gummy or smokes cannabis flower.

But we also make our own.

Standing on the Boulder Creek path, her face glowing after a morning jog, Bryan explains:

“I feel amazing. It’s just this feeling of freedom and strength and confidence,” she says as a pack of runners shuffles by. “Everyone we are seeing out here today is having that same experience, and I would be willing to bet that none of them used cannabis before their run today.”

When we exert ourselves, our tissues release cannabinoids which slip perfectly into those same receptors, reducing pain and sparking euphoria.

As Bryan notes in one review paper, long-distance runners often describe running as a “drug like” experience (complete with difficulty assessing the passage of time). They also experience something akin to withdrawal when they can’t run.

Numerous studies have shown that high-intensity exercise (running more so than walking) leads to higher circulating levels of endocannabinoids in the blood.

Meanwhile, studies have begun to debunk the endorphin-runner’s high connection.

One found that when opioid receptors were chemically blocked with a drug called naltrexone, athletes still experienced the runner’s high. Another found that when cyclists had higher circulating levels of endorphins, they actually felt more, not less, stressed out.

While it’s not necessary to use cannabis to get the runner’s high, many athletes, particularly ultra long-distance runners, do mix weed and workouts. They report that supplementing the cannabinoids their bodies make with ones from a dispensary can enhance the high or bring it on sooner.

But there are downsides to that.

In one study of 42 runners published in the journal Sports Medicine, Bryan found that using THC or CBD during exercise did indeed boost motivation and make exercise more fun. But it also slowed folks down.

Her advice for those gunning for a fast 5k or a marathon PR: Stick with the high your own body gives you.

Psychologist Angela Bryan, like many other avid runners, is no stranger to what many call the “runner’s high.” The scientist breaks down what happens in the body to make you feel so good during a long jog.

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ADHD and reading disability often occur together, study finds

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 17:42:42 +0000

ADHD and reading disability often occur together, study finds Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 10/18/2024 - 11:42

babyֱ��app Arts and Sciences Magazine

According to a paper coauthored by Professor Erik Willcutt, many children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder also have reading disability, and vice versa.

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New device could deliver bedside blood test results in an hour

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 15:52:44 +0000

New device could deliver bedside blood test results in an hour Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/16/2024 - 09:52

Lisa Marshall , Nicholas Goda

Title image: Cooper Thome, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, uses a new "acoustic pipette," which could someday be used to deliver swift test results at the bedside with only a finger-prick of blood. (Credits: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder.)

Go to the doctor to provide a blood sample and you’re typically faced with a needle and syringe and hours or even days of waiting to get results back from a lab.

CU Boulder researchers hope to change that with a new handheld, sound-based diagnostic system able to deliver precise results in an hour with a mere finger prick of blood.

The team describes the system in a new paper published Oct. 16 in the journal Science Advances.

[video:https://youtu.be/VRk3SgoZC_o]

“We’ve developed a technology that is very user friendly, can be deployed in various settings and provides valuable diagnostic information in a short time frame,” said senior author Wyatt Shields, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at CU Boulder.

The findings come as scientists have been racing to democratize diagnostic testing, which can be hard for people in rural areas or developing countries to access and, in the case of blood tests, frightening for those averse to needles.

While existing rapid tests, known as lateral-flow assays, like COVID tests or pregnancy tests, can provide a quick “yes” or “no” as to whether a specific biomarker or biomolecule in the blood or urine is present, they typically can’t say how much, and they aren’t sensitive enough to detect very small amounts.

Meanwhile, the gold standard for clinical blood tests, known as an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), is highly sensitive and specialized enough to detect rare or scarce biomarkers but requires expensive equipment and complex techniques, and it can take hours or days for patients to receive results.

The authors acknowledge that skepticism exists in the biosensing field since the highly publicized downfall of Theranos Inc., which promised as far back as 2015 to detect hundreds of biomarkers with a drop of blood. Their invention works differently, they said, and unlike the now-defunct startup, it is based on systematic experiments and peer-reviewed research.

The acoustic pipette uses sound waves to test for biomarkers in blood. Photo by Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder.

Cooper Thome, left, and Wyatt Shields in the lab. Photo by Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder.

“While what they claimed to do isn’t possible right now, a lot of researchers are hoping something similar will be possible one day,” said first-author Cooper Thome, a doctoral candidate in Shields’ lab. “This work could be a step toward that goal—but one that is backed by science that anybody can access.”

Using sound waves in a new way

Shields and Thome set out to develop a tool that is simultaneously sensitive, highly portable and easy-to-use.

Their secret ingredients: tiny particles they call “functional negative acoustic contrast” particles (fNACPs) and a custom-built, handheld instrument or “acoustic pipette” that delivers sound waves to the blood samples inside.

As part of his doctoral work, Thome designed the fNACPs (essentially cell-sized rubber balls) to be customized with functional coatings so they recognize and capture a designated biomarker of interest, such as an infectious virus or a protein deemed a red flag for a brewing health problem. The particles also respond to the pressure from sound waves differently than blood cells. Thome designed the acoustic pipette to harness this unique response.

“We’re basically using sound waves to manipulate particles to rapidly isolate them from a really small volume of fluid,” said Thome, who specializes in the study of “acoustofluidics.” “It’s a whole new way of measuring blood biomarkers.”

When a small amount of blood is mixed with the custom particles and placed inside the acoustic pipette, sound waves force the particles to the side of a chamber where they are trapped inside while the rest of the blood is flushed out.

The remaining biomarkers, attached to the particles, are then labeled with fluorescent tags and hit with lasers to determine the amount present.

All this happens in under 70 minutes inside a device that can fit in the palm of a hand.

Matching the gold standard clinical test

“In our paper, we demonstrate that this pipette and particle system can offer the same sensitivity and specificity as a gold-standard clinical test can but within an instrument that radically simplifies workflows,” said Shields, noting that this time could likely be reduced more with future refinements. “It gives us the potential to perform blood diagnostics right at the patient’s bedside.”

This could be particularly useful for assessing not only whether a patient has an infectious disease but also what their viral load is and how fast it is growing, he said. The device could also potentially play a role in measuring antibodies to determine whether someone needed a booster shot or not, testing for allergies or detecting proteins associated with certain cancers.

The study is a proof of concept, and more research is necessary before the device could be commercialized. The authors have worked with Venture Partners to apply for patents and are now exploring ways to make the technology work for multiple patients at once (which would be useful in mobile clinics in rural areas, for instance) or test for multiple biomarkers simultaneously.

“We think this has a lot of potential to address some of the longstanding challenges that have come from having to take a blood sample from a patient, haul it off to a lab and wait to get results back,” said Shields.

CU Boulder researchers have developed a new sound-based, handheld device that can swiftly and accurately detect signs of disease in a pin-prick of blood. Their findings are published in the journal Science Advances.

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Innovation at a price: The hidden costs of antibiotic development

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:53:12 +0000

Innovation at a price: The hidden costs of antibiotic development Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/15/2024 - 08:53

Katy Marquardt Hill

In an age when antibiotic resistance poses a severe threat to global health, a new study sheds light on the often-overlooked hurdles of drug commercialization.

Sina Khoshsokhan

Soaring costs associated with bringing new antimicrobials to market are stifling innovation, according to research forthcoming in the journal Academy of Management Proceedings.

The study’s author, Sina Khoshsokhan, assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship in the Leeds School of Business, said that while the scientific community has made strides in understanding drug research and development, the transition from laboratory breakthroughs to market-ready products is riddled with obstacles.

"As researchers in innovation, we tend to have a deeper understanding of the research side of drug development, while the complexities of the commercialization process are often overlooked," Khoshsokhan said. "We have a wealth of new discoveries, but without effective pathways to market, many promising innovations never see the light of day."

As part of the study, Khoshsokhan analyzed data from Clarivate, which tracks drug discovery, development, regulatory affairs and market access in pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. He compared the drug development trajectories of antimicrobial candidates with those targeting immune-related diseases to identify key trends and challenges that hinder the commercialization of antibiotics.

While all drugs must meet safety and efficacy standards, antimicrobials face particularly stringent FDA regulations and must undergo extensive clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy, resulting in significant financial burdens.

Khoshsokhan pointed out that large corporations often shy away from antibiotic development in favor of more lucrative long-term medications, such as those for diabetes or cardiovascular diseases. "This misalignment of incentives has resulted in a troubling gap in the market," he said. "Startups are often the source of innovative ideas, but without partnerships with larger firms, many promising inventions never reach patients."

Antimicrobial resistance claims some 700,000 lives annually worldwide. If left unaddressed, that number could soar to 10 million by 2050, surpassing deaths from cancer, according to a 2019 report from the UN Interagency Coordination Group. Khoshsokhan argues for an approach that encourages startups while also incentivizing large corporations to invest in antibiotic development.

The paper won the Academy of Management Strategic Management Division’s Distinguished Paper Award in the area of knowledge, learning, and innovation strategy, highlighting its contribution to understanding the commercialization challenges in the pharmaceutical industry.

Khoshsokhan believes that interdisciplinary collaboration is essential. "Antimicrobial resistance is a grand challenge that warrants attention from both natural and social sciences," he said. "We need more research to effectively combat this issue."

Khoshsokhan remains optimistic that stakeholders throughout the pharmaceutical industry will work together to foster innovation and ensure the availability of life-saving antibiotics. "It's crucial that we encourage not just startups but also larger firms to invest in the health of our society," he stated. "We can't afford to neglect the development of antibiotics in the face of rising resistance."

Rising commercialization expenses obstruct the path from drug discovery to market, threatening public health amid growing antimicrobial resistance.

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CUriosity: Why does playing in the dirt feel so good?

Anonymous — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 19:48:51 +0000

CUriosity: Why does playing in the dirt feel so good? Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/09/2024 - 13:48

Lisa Marshall

In our new, bi-weekly series CUriosity, experts across the CU Boulder campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Integrative Physiology Professor Christopher Lowry, answers: “Why does playing in the dirt feel so good?”

Sink your hands into the soil to plant some fall bulbs or harvest that last summer crop, and, chances are, you’ll feel a sense of calm wash over you.

It makes sense: You’re not at work. The sun is shining. And there’s something inherently gratifying about watching things grow.

Previously in CUriosity

How old is beer?

But as Integrative Physiology Professor Chris Lowry explains, there’s a more scientific explanation for why getting dirty makes you feel so good.

That dirt is often rich with beneficial bacteria which can slip into our bodies via our mouths, lungs or the plants we eat, dampening inflammation that can fuel illness—including mental illness.

“These bacteria we co-evolved with have a trick up their sleeve,” explains Lowry, kneeling in front of a pile of dusty, freshly-dug potatoes in his Boulder garden. Beside them are juicy cherry tomatoes and a few poblano peppers nurtured by thick black soil.

He grabs a handful and continues.

“When they get taken up by our immune cells, some of these microorganisms release fat molecules that bind to our cell receptors and shut off this inflammatory cascade.”

This mechanism, which Lowry’s lab discovered in a bacterium called Mycobacterium vaccae, is just one of many ways our “old friends,” as scientists call these microbial companions, support mental health.

His research has shown they also activate brain cells that produce the feel-good chemical serotonin. And when mice are given a shot of M. vaccae—essentially a stress vaccine—they act less anxious when faced with a challenge.

The trouble, says Lowry, is that we aren’t getting dirty often enough.

“If you think about evolution, the original mammals were burrowing animals,” he says. “They literally lived in the soil, and for a long time we existed in harmony with it.”

[video:https://youtu.be/J0fRo9IfjlQ]

According to the Old Friends Hypothesis, the more we remove ourselves from these microbes—via urbanization and replacement of fresh fruits and vegetables with ultra-processed food— the more vulnerable we become to inflammatory diseases. The more we nestle up to them, the better we feel.

Take farm kids.

Some research suggests they have greater resilience against asthma and allergies.

In one small study, Lowry and colleagues also found that children who grew up in rural areas, surrounded by animals, gardens and plenty of dirt, had a healthier immune response to stress in adulthood.

But what explains that short-term bliss that seems to overcome a kid making mud pies or a university professor digging potatoes?

Sunlight, fresh air and companionship, of course, play a role.

But Lowry also points to another soil study. Researchers had one group of people sow seeds into soil rich with beneficial bacteria and another into inert dirt. Meanwhile, the scientists measured electrical activity in the gardeners’ brains.

“You could tell within 10 minutes which group was which,” Lowry says. “That’s pretty spectacular isn’t it? There’s something going on here that we don’t quite understand yet.”

Until we do? Get out in nature. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables (even if you wash them, they still retain some "old friends" soaked up from the soil).

“And everyone should take time to play in the dirt,” he says.

From his home garden, CU Boulder’s Chris Lowry explains why humans get so much enjoyment out of sinking their hands into dirt—it may have something to do with the friendly microbes that live in the soil.

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You get your energy from your mom. A new study explains why

Anonymous — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 22:21:23 +0000

You get your energy from your mom. A new study explains why Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/08/2024 - 16:21

Lisa Marshall

Title image: Mitochondria under the microscope.

It’s one of the basic tenets of biology: We get our DNA from our mom and our dad.

But one notable exception has perplexed scientists for decades: Most animals, including humans, inherit the DNA inside their mitochondria—the cell’s energy centers—from their mothers alone, with all traces of their father’s mitochondrial genome destroyed the moment sperm joins egg.

A new CU Boulder study published Oct. 4 in the journal Science Advances sheds new light on why this happens, showing that when the process fails, and paternal mitochondria slips into a developing embryo, it can lead to lasting neurological, behavioral and reproductive problems in adults.

The study, conducted in roundworms, offers new clues about what may drive some mitochondrial disorders, which hinder the body’s ability to produce energy and collectively impact about one in 5,000 people. It also presents a novel approach for potentially preventing or treating them—a simple vitamin known as vitamin K2.

“These findings provide important new insights into why paternal mitochondria must be swiftly removed during early development,” said senior author Ding Xue, a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB) at CU Boulder. “They also offer new hope for treatment of human diseases that may be caused when this process is compromised.”

When cellular batteries run low

Often described as cellular batteries, mitochondria produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy that drives virtually all cell functions.

Mitochondria have their own distinct DNA, typically passed down exclusively from the mother.

In 2016, Xue published one of the first papers to spell out just how paternal mitochondria gets wiped out—via a multi-faceted, self-destruct mechanism known as “paternal mitochondria elimination (PME),” a process documented in worms, rodents and humans alike.

“It could be humiliating for a guy to hear, but it’s true,” Xue joked. “Our stuff is so undesirable that evolution has designed multiple mechanisms to make sure it is cleared during reproduction.”

Some have theorized that after battling it out with millions of other sperm to penetrate an egg, sperm mitochondria are exhausted and genetically damaged in ways that would be evolutionarily disastrous if passed on to future generations.

Xue and his team set out to find out what happens when paternal mitochondria do not self-destruct.

They studied C. elegans, a translucent worm which contains only 1,000 cells but develops a nervous system, gut, muscles and other tissues similar to humans.

The team was unable to completely halt PME in the worms—a testament to how resilient this evolutionary process is. But they were able to delay it by about 10 hours. When they did so in fertilized eggs, it led to significant reductions in ATP. If the worms survived at all, they had impaired cognition, altered activity and difficulty reproducing.

When the researchers treated the worms with a form of vitamin K2 known as MK-4 (best known as a bone health supplement) it restored ATP levels to normal in the embryos and improved memory, activity and reproduction in the adult worms.

Hope for hard-to-treat diseases

Ding Xue

The authors note that there are only a few documented cases in which paternal mitochondrial DNA might have been found in human adults. One 28-year-old man had trouble breathing, weak muscles and could not tolerate exercise. Another paper describes 17 members of three unrelated multi-generational families who had fatigue, muscle pain, speech delays and neurological symptoms.

More research is needed in larger animals, but Xue suspects that in some cases, as with the worms, a mere delay in PME could be fueling hard-to-diagnose human diseases.

“If you have a problem with ATP it can impact every stage of the human life cycle,” he said.

Xue imagines a day when some families with a history of mitochondrial disorders take vitamin K2 prenatally as a precautionary measure. The study, and the lab’s ongoing research, could also lead to new ways to diagnose or treat such disorders.

“There are a lot of diseases that are poorly understood. No one really knows what is going on. This research offers clues,” Xue said.

Scientists have long wondered why animals get the DNA inside their mitochondria, the cell’s energy center, only from their mothers. New research explains why and offers hope for treating mitochondrial disorders.

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After a suicide, more loved ones are seeking support online. Does it help or harm?

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 21:27:19 +0000

After a suicide, more loved ones are seeking support online. Does it help or harm? Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 09/24/2024 - 15:27

Lisa Marshall

Dylan Thomas Doyle was a college junior traveling abroad when he got word that his friend Jack had taken his own life back home. Shaken, but reluctant to talk about it to his friends in person, he turned to online grief support spaces like Facebook and Reddit.

A decade later, when serving as a hospital chaplain and Unitarian Universalist minister, he lost two more loved ones to suicide. He found solace online again—this time in a subreddit specifically created for suicide bereavement.

“All grief is hard, but suicide is often sudden, traumatic and has a lot of social stigma around it. No one knows what to say, so you can feel really isolated,” said Doyle, now a doctoral candidate in the Department of Information Science at CU Boulder. “It’s comforting to go to these spaces and have people say, ‘I’ve been through that. I know what you’re feeling.’”

But as Doyle reports in two new studies, such spaces also have the potential to do harm, exposing emotionally vulnerable people, including children, to graphic stories, unhelpful comments and other potentially re-traumatizing content.

The studies, published in the Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, are among the first to explore what goes on in suicide bereavement groups.

“It’s great that these communities exist,” said Doyle, who is now working to make them safer. “But right now, it’s sort of a free for all.”

Dylan Thomas Doyle

The power of sharing stories

On average, 132 people in the U.S. complete suicide daily. More than half of the population will, at some point, grieve a loved one who has died this way. Professional help can be hard to find because suicide bereavement is specialized. One recent study found that 62% of people grieving a loved one who died by suicide turn to social media for support.

For their study, Doyle and his co-authors examined nearly 2,600 posts and 16,502 comments in the r/SuicideBereavement subreddit.

The team used AI natural language processing (NLP) technology to get insight into the emotional state of users and identify different kinds of posts, from lengthy stories to short questions or requests for resources.

They found that nearly half of content posted was narrative storytelling, and many of those stories were extremely graphic.

When the team noticed a large subset of users were writing letters to the deceased, they launched a companion study in which they read through 189 such posts and 652 comments.

The posts were anonymized and the research team made sure to take care of their own mental health along the way.

“Even as researchers, we struggled to read some of these,” said Doyle.

Some letter-writers shared how they had found out and how it affected them. Others asked for explanations or sought forgiveness for not doing enough. One shared a story about a final trip they and the deceased had taken to the mountains, and how much they laughed afterward. Many commenters responded with comfort, reassurance, gratitude and offers of direct support outside the platform.

But some shared detailed descriptions of the way they had found their loved ones or the way their death had been carried out. Some expressed rage and hatred for being left behind.

The team was heartened to find almost no deliberately abusive comments but they did find some they deemed “unsupportive,” in which commenters replied with their own graphic stories.

“Some people come there just seeking resources or asking factual questions, and don’t expect to find people sharing narratives of really tough images,” Doyle said.

Due to the way social media algorithms operate, the most graphic comments tended to rise to the top and generated more comments.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. Read about suicide prevention resources at CU Boulder.

“If you’re, say, 13-years-old and you come upon this and start taking it all in, that could really be harmful,” he said. “And for people who are already in a vulnerable emotional state, it can be damaging to their grieving process.”

Building a more supportive platform

Doyle stressed that he is not specifically critiquing Reddit, but rather raising questions about how to more effectively support people using social media platforms for suicide bereavement support. He believes more research is needed and does not think banning narrative storytelling on platforms is the answer. (Previous research shows that in offline support groups, such storytelling can be extremely therapeutic.)

He does believe platforms could serve users better.

At present, r/SuicideBereavement subreddit moderators are not required to be certified or trained in mental health.

On its homepage, the site clearly prohibits “actively suicidal content” and advises that it is reserved only for those bereaved by suicide. But the subreddit, just like an NFL or travel subreddit, operates with few guardrails.

Doyle imagines a day when, using the AI tool his team developed, narrative posts could be categorized and users, when logging on, could opt in or out of seeing them.

He also suggests that moderators get training around grief support and users have an opportunity to customize what they want to see at the top of their feed.

“Social media platforms in general don’t really know what to do with death or the bereaved,” he said. “We believe that more needs to be done to make these spaces customized to the unique needs of the grieving.”

New CU Boulder research suggests that while bereavement support spaces like Reddit can be therapeutic, they can potentially traumatize users.

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Health

Detecting cognitive decline before its symptoms start

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Social media posts reveal regional patterns in seasonal allergies

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