Public Health
Individuals who get less than seven hours of sleep per night appear about three times as likely to develop respiratory illness following exposure to a cold virus as those who sleep eight hours or more, according to a report in the January 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation impairs some immune function, according to background information in the article. Research indicates that those who sleep approximately seven to eight hours per night have the lowest rates of heart disease illness and death. However…
Dr. Lam has a post on the link between sugar and all the ills of humanity. While I’m certainly for a low sugar diet (and the proscriptions in the post are largely fine), he brings up some points that are just plain weird.
In particular, he quotes (favorably) Robert Crayhon, the dude who created the “Paleo Diet”, in his definitions of what Crayhon calls paleocarbs and neocarbs (no, a neocarb is not a description of Karl Rove):
Paleocarbs are carbohydrates that have existed since the beginning of time. They include fruits, seeds, and vegetables that primarily grow above the ground. Generally…
Dengue fever is a nasty disease found all over the tropics, with names like break-bone fever referring to the severity of the pain it causes. It is carried mostly by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, but also by related species. I have just read three reports on the BBC science site of techniques aimed at controlling the fever by attacking the mosquito in its sex life.
In the first of these Global award for dengue control Oxitec, an Oxford based company, are applying the classic “sterile male” technique to stop them breeding. This was first used against screw worms, maggots…
Southerners die from stroke more than in any other U.S. region, but exactly why that happens is unknown. A new report by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and the University of Vermont underscores that geographic and racial differences are not the sole reasons behind the South's higher stroke death rate.
The data is from UAB's Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study, which has enrolled more than 30,200 U.S. participants. The study confirms a greater-than 40 percent higher stroke death rate in eight southeastern states known as the…
The lowest ever levels of oxygen in humans have been reported in climbers on an expedition led by UCL (University College London) doctors. The world-first measurements of blood oxygen levels in climbers near the top of Mount Everest, published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), could eventually help critical care doctors to re-evaluate treatment strategies in some long-term patients with similarly low levels of blood oxygen.
The Caudwell Xtreme Everest team of climbing doctors made the measurements by taking blood from leg arteries close to the summit of Mount…
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Today the world faces countless obstacles and afflictions; AIDS, cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer’s are a few of the widespread conditions that significantly affect the global population. But what about less serious diseases? In the US, most of us can live without fear of contracting malaria or dying from the flu, but we are still plagued by chronic illnesses that earn less attention from the scientific, medical and public community because their “threat level” is low. Asthma is one of these illnesses, without a cure but still a prevalent problem both in the US and worldwide.…
The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the branch of the NIH which funds the majority of academic genome research in the US, is trying to lay out its next big road map, and personalized medicine looms large. The NHGRI wants to use its hefty funding power to ensure that personalized medicine is based on solid research as it become more commercially available.
The institute has offered several white papers, including one on "Applying Genomics to Clinical Problems-Diagnostics, Preventative Medicine, Pharmacogenomics".
Some of the key questions are:
1. "What do new genetically-…
A new book, "Poisoned Profits: The Toxic Assault on Our Children" by Philip and Alice Shabecoff is praised for its competent journalism in January 5, 2009 issue of Chemical and Engineering News. The review article, Protecting Children From Toxic Chemicals, transmits the book's message that toxic chemicals and heavy metals in the environment are responsible for much of the increase in chronic disease and disability in children.[1]
The Shabecoffs explore both the hazardous pollutants and the difficulties in preventing their…
For a long time, we have been told that exercise is key to weight loss. If you don't have time to exercise, or can't, your excuse is built in.
Not so, says a recent international study. It comes down to knowing how many calories your body needs and eating that or less. Exercise can simply increase the calories you may ingest without gaining weight. Oddly, we knew this in 1908 but it seems to have been lost somewhere.
Researchers from Loyola University Health System and other centers compared African American women in metropolitan Chicago with women…
Females of all ages are less active than their male peers according to two studies presented today which reveal the gender difference in activity levels among school children and the over 70s. Both studies show males to be more physically active than females.
At least in the United Kingdom.
The two studies are being presented at the UK Society for Behavioural Medicine annual conference (incorporating the National Prevention Research Initiative conference) at the University of Exeter (UK).
A study focusing on primary schools in Liverpool (UK) gives the first evidence of the difference…