Taking a ‘healthy’ view

Time to get outside more and experience those French Frissons

Awe-inspiring experiences, such as viewing works of art or overlooking a scenic vista, may have physical as well as mental health benefits, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that the positive emotions triggered by these encounters can have an immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory effect that helps protect the body from heart disease, depression, autoimmune conditions, and other chronic illnesses. The study surveyed more than 200 young adults to rate the intensity of their feelings of amusement, awe, pride, compassion, contentment, joy, and love on a given day. They also took samples of subjects’ cheek and gum tissue to measure levels of the pro-inflammatory protein cytokine. Those who reported feeling awe, wonder, or amazement had lower levels of cytokine, a marker of good health. “That awe, wonder, and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines,” study co-author Dacher Keltner tells Science Daily, “suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions—taking a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art —have a direct influence upon health and life expectancy.”

Taken from the February 20th edition of The Week Magazine.

A superbug that defies all antibiotics

And here we go again.
I do like the idea that we can circle back to older antibacterials to save ourselves, as we discussed here.

Is this Mother Earth ridding herself of a major pest?

Bacteria that can resist even the most powerful antibiotics are infecting livestock and people in China, raising the grave possibility that untreatable diseases could spread around the world. These superbugs are especially worrying because they have a mechanism that transfers drug resistance to other strains of bacteria. If their resistance spreads, it could trigger an antibiotic apocalypse, leaving doctors helpless to treat deadly infections. Until now, drug-resistant bacteria have remained susceptible to an antibiotic called colistin. But apparently this “last resort” drug has been so overused on livestock that some bacteria have developed a mutant gene to resist it. Researchers in China discovered the gene, known as MCR-1, in pigs and found that it had spread to a handful of hospital patients. What makes the mutation especially dangerous is that it is found on plasmids, DNA molecules that move freely between different bacterial strains. By riding on plasmids, the resistance gene can readily pass between common bacteria, such as E. coli, that cause pneumonia and bloodstream infections. Microbiologists warn that it may only be a matter of time before universal drug resistance is widespread and existing antibiotics are obsolete. “This isn’t going to happen overnight, and the number of infections that can only be treated by colistin is still relatively small,” study co-author Jim Spenser tells CBSNews.com. “But it highlights the urgent need for new treatments for these organisms and the limited time that we have to develop them.”

Taken from the December 11th edition of the Week Magazine.

A Good Week for:

Conscious consumption, after a British study found that roughly 15 percent of young adults do not know that pork comes from pigs and lamb comes from sheep. Some 20 percent believed that “fish fingers” are made from the fingers of fish.

I don't know what to say.

Taken from the December 4th Week Magazine.

Personalized Dieting

The December 11th edition of the Week is catching up with something we already discussed here. This is the second time I have heard about this, but no more information on how to get involved.

I read in a fashion magazine that models are using acid test strips to find out how acidic their urine is and then they eat something to help modify the ph level in their body. Is this similar? Meaning, can we, as lay people, do some simple testing with the tools already available to us to figure some of this out on our own? Or, I suppose the tried and true, elimination diets.

The way people metabolize food varies dramatically from person to person, so no one diet can work for everyone. That’s the conclusion of a new study that finally explains why a weight-loss plan that helps one person might do absolutely nothing for another. Researchers in Israel asked 800 healthy and pre-diabetic adults between 18 and 70 to keep a record of their meals, sleep, and exercise for one week. An analysis of participants’ gut microbes, along with continuous monitoring of their blood sugar levels, showed significant variations among people eating identical foods. “In some cases, individuals have opposite responses to one another,” co-author Eran Segal tells The Washington Post. For example, some people who ate supposedly healthful bananas or tomatoes experienced a sharp blood sugar spike, while having no adverse reaction to a glass of wine or a slice of pizza. The opposite was true for other people. In a follow-up study, Segal’s team created individually tailored diets based on people’s lifestyle, medical history, and other factors. Many of these customized diets were unorthodox, enabling some people to enjoy small amounts of alcohol, chocolate, or ice cream. The findings, researchers say, could transform the treatment of obesity, diabetes, and other conditions, and lead to personalized diet plans. “We think we know how to treat these conditions, and it’s just that people are not listening and are eating out of control,” Segal said. But “in many cases we were giving them the wrong advice.”

I didn't copy the picture the Week used with this article... I thought I'd use a picture of Foie Gras, a personal favorite, rather than pizza. I took the foie gras photo from the Dartagnan web site.

Soda linked to heart failure

Merry Christmas!

I will be filling up on sugary sweets today in direct contrast to this post...

And further discussion about why we should cut out all sodas from our diet. This blurb is also taken from the November 20th edition of the Week Magazine. (Once I post this, you see, I can recycle the magazine; I have been holding on to it for weeks so that I might share with you.)

The Week discussed this with it's readers previously and we blogged about it here.

I took this photo from here. Don't ask me why from this page, the image just appealed to me

Soft drinks and other sugary beverages have been shown to increase the odds of suffering high blood pressure, liver disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity. Now a long-term Swedish study reveals that people with a daily soda habit may also be at higher risk for heart failure. The researchers followed roughly 42,000 men over 45 for 12 years, monitoring their diets and allowing for other risk factors. They found that the subjects who drank more than two sweetened drinks every day had a 23 percent greater risk of developing heart failure, which occurs when the heart becomes too weak to pump blood as well as it should. The study doesn’t prove that sugary drinks directly cause the condition, but the association suggests it’s wise to avoid those empty calories. Swedish men tend to be trimmer and fitter than their American counterparts, Duke University cardiologist Christopher O’Connor tells CBSNews​.com, which means the potential effects of sugary drinks “would be larger and faster here.”

Standing Fights Obesity

Taken from the November 30th edition of The Week Magazine:

It’s well established that a sedentary existence is bad for us and that regular exercise promotes better health. Apparently, new research reveals, we don’t even have to hit the treadmill to feel better; just standing up can have significant benefits, The Washington Post reports. A five-year study of more than 7,000 adults found that people who stood for at least 25 percent of their day displayed considerably lower risk of obesity—32 percent for men and 35 percent among women. Meanwhile, standing for half of the day reduced the likelihood of obesity among men by 59 percent, compared with 47 percent among women. It’s unclear from the data if standing directly reduces obesity risk or if people who are obese simply stand less. But the results offer another argument for logging some upright time. “Many of us have sedentary jobs and commute long hours,” says lead author Kerem Shuval of the American Cancer Society. “In general, the goal is to find any reason to get off your chair more often.”

We have seen this previously here and here. Scary if we are not absorbing this information (and yet I am siting as I write this!)

Richard III DNA tests uncover evidence of further royal scandal

Latest genetic tests reveal another break in the male line, potentially undermining the legitimacy of the entire House of Plantagenet.

A painting of King Richard III by an unknown artist from the 16th Century Photograph: NEIL HALL/Reuters

When scientists revealed last year that an adulterous affair had apparently broken the male line in Richard III’s family tree, they vowed to investigate further.

But rather than clear up the mystery, their latest genetic tests have uncovered evidence of another royal sex scandal. This time, the indiscretion could potentially undermine the legitimacy of the entire House of Plantagenet.

The skeleton of Richard III, the last Plantagenet king, was discovered under a car park in Leicester in 2012. His identity was confirmed through his mitochondrial DNA, passed down through the maternal line from his sister to two relatives alive today.

But further DNA tests soon uncovered evidence of a family secret. It emerged when researchers at Leicester University compared the Y chromosomes of Richard III and five anonymous male relatives of Henry Somerset (1744-1803), who claim descent from Edward III, the great great grandfather of Richard III.

Since the Y chromosome is passed down from father to son, it should look the same in the descendants of Henry Somerset, the 5th Duke of Beaufort, and Richard III. But genetic tests found no sign of a match. Somewhere in the family between Richard III and the Somersets, at least one man had been cuckolded.

Speaking at the Science Museum in London on Wednesday, Turi King, a geneticist working on the case, revealed her team’s latest attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery. A man called Patrice de Warren, who lives in France, had come forward for genetic testing. He could trace his male line back to Richard III through the illegitimate son of Geoffrey, Count of Anjou (1113 - 1151).

King knew that if de Warren’s Y chromosome matched that of Henry Somerset’s, then the affair that broke the male line must have occurred between Edward III and Richard III. But if his Y chromosome matched Richard III’s, the male line was broken between Edward III and the Somersets.

The test result found neither. “De Warren’s Y chromosome doesn’t match Richard III or Henry Somerset, so somewhere along the line there’s been another false paternity event,” King told the Guardian. “It’s opened up the mystery even further.” Since the false paternity rate is around 1-2% in any generation, she said the result was not particularly surprising.

For all the scientists know, Patrice de Warren carries the ‘true’ Plantagenet Y chromosome, and those found in Richard III and the extended family of Henry Somerset were inherited from another man. “The problem is that we cannot say where the break occurs. All it tells us is that we have to keep looking, and that is what we are doing,” said Kevin Schürer, a genealogy expert at Leicester who is working on the case.

More likely than not, the freshly-discovered break in the male line occurred in the 22 generations that separate Patrice de Warren from Geoffrey, Count of Anjou. But if that branch of the tree is found to be intact, the consequences for the monarchy’s history become far more intriguing.

“If that turned out to be the case, and this is pure speculation, then there must have been a break between the Count of Anjou and Richard III. Which means that before we raise questions about the legitimacy of the Yorkist kings and the Lancastrian kings, there are questions higher up the line, raising doubts about nearly all of the Plantagenets,” said Schürer.

The latest findings do not impact on the modern monarchy at all, says King, because there are so many twists and turns in the way the throne is handed over. But depending on where the breaks happened, they could recast a crucial period in the history of the monarchy, affecting the Stuarts, the Tudors and the Windsors.

The investigation is not over yet. Schürer and King now want to test the Y chromosomes of other de Warrens in the US and Australia, and men in the extended Duke of Beaufort family, an option that has clear advantages over the alternative of exhuming lots of dead bodies and testing those. “The idea is to have a pincer movement and tackle it on a number of different fronts,” said Schürer. “We’re not going to give up the quest.”

The latest findings form part of a new exhibit at the Science Museum which describes the scientific discoveries around the life, death and DNA of King Richard III. The exhibit, which includes a 3D printed skeleton of the king, opens Wednesday, the day before the reinterment of his remains in Leicester.

I found this article at the Guardian, here.

Ian Sample, science editor
@iansample
Wednesday 25 March 2015 16.15 EDT Last modified on Thursday 26 March 2015 07.18 EDT

The Toxins in Your Body

I caught up on some reading...

What do you suppose this means to future generations and the study of families?

Everyday products are “contaminating our bodies” with toxic chemicals, said Nicholas Kristof. Two mainstream medical organizations have recently issued independent warnings about chemicals found in such products as pesticides, plastics, shampoos and cosmetics, food-can linings, and flame retardants in furniture. The toxins, says the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics, are linked to breast, prostate, and uterine cancers, genital deformities, obesity, diabetes, and infertility. The doctors’ group also warns that “exposure to toxic chemicals during pregnancy and lactation is ubiquitous,” with pregnant women having at least 43 different chemical contaminants in their bodies. Today, “babies are born pre-polluted,” says the National Cancer Institute, with the resulting cancers and fertility problems showing up decades later, in adulthood. The chemical industry insists there’s no causal proof that the 80,000 new chemicals it’s introduced into the environment cause damage, and U.S. regulators simply assume that these substances are safe unless proven otherwise. So for now, “experts say the best approach is for people to try to protect themselves” by minimizing their exposure to pesticides, plastics, and other chemicals. It’s the best we guinea pigs can do.

Taken from the December 11th edition of the Week. Written originally by Nicholas Kristof in the The New York Times.

Herb is still in Boxhorn

I have had difficulty figuring out the name of the town in Germany Herb references, but I think he use the French name for Mainz, Germany. I can't be certain.

I can't even find Hinkley on Google maps; not even an eyeball search near Utica!

Could this photo have been taken while Herb was wondering thru the countryside?

If Harry has been accepted to Cornell, why would that be poor luck? I am dying to know what was going on for him all the while.

December 11 [1918]

Dearest Mother,
As long as we stay in this village I’m afraid I’ll have to confine my letters to a plain statement that I am well. Nothing has happened here in the past hundred years. There is absolutely nothing to do from one weeks end to the other. Nearly every day there are a few sick men to be moved enough to keep two or three cars moving – and that is all. When it isn’t raining too hard I go out in the afternoon for a four or five mile walk cross-country. That’s only three or four times a week because on the other days it pours rain. In between it drizzles. I don’t believe there’s a worse climate anywhere in the world.

The last Post I got – three or four days ago was for October 19. Probably October 26th will be here in a few days and I can read that article about the Battle of the Marne that Dad wanted me to see.

Yesterday’s French newspaper said our Army Corps – the 21st French – is to go into M??, Germany, but we have no orders about it. It seems so funny to read in the paper of where one is going because up to about three weeks ago no information on troops movements could be given. The best information we’ve had from headquarters was to the effect that we’d probably be here two or three months, so I don’t know which to believe. For myself, I’d rather go than stay here, because this is certainly the dullest place I’ve ever seen. Hinkley, that little place near Utica where I worked in the summer of 1916 was lively compared to this.

The days are very short now. Even at half past three one can’t see to read. We have supper at four thirty so that leaves a long, long evening. Some one [sic} ought to set up a moving picture theater here. I’d patronize it regularly for one.

Be sure and keep me posted as to how Harry makes out. He’s been playing in hard luck, poor kid.

With best love to you all.
Your affectionate son,
Herb

1918 December report

Herb got a promotion! Herb got a promotion! Now he is a Corporal. Only one in the unit. I'm so proud.

Herb visiting Clervaux

December 10th

Dear Mother,
This is the town about three miles away. It gives a good idea of the country. It’s still raining.
With love,
Herb

Hanging in Boxhorn, Luxembourg

I don't know anything about Harry attending Cornell.

Can you imagine being one of the 'peasants' Herb talks about? Criticizing them for 'swiping most anything not tied down'? I can't imagine the deprivation these people have suffered during the many years of war. Makes me think of refugees fleeing civil war in current times. An awful existence.

Here we see the route that Herb has taken to get to this point:

December 4^th [1918]

Dearest Mother,

There have been two letters from the family this past week and the mail is now beginning to come in quite regularly as the lines of communication become established.

We are still in the same little village in Luxembourg and it is insufferably dull. How I do wish I could get back to work. Of course there is very little to do here. There are no longer wounded to carry and not very many sick.

We had a very nice dinner Thanksgiving day roast chicken, hashed browned potatoes, sweet crackers, apple pie and cocoa. The crackers and cocoa were donated by the Red Cross at Sedan where the Lieutenant had been to get some spare parts. Getting the chicken and the apples was quite a job. These people here didn’t want to sell at first, because they say money is of little use to them, but they nearly fell over themselves trying to trade for coffee. There has been practically no coffee here since the war; what there was cost about seven dollars a pound. Naturally these peasants couldn’t pay it, so they’ve had to make a substitute out of roasted barley. And so far about five pounds of coffee we got eleven nice chickens – cheap enough.

The Red Cross also donated a sweater and a pair of socks all around.

It continues to rain here practically all the time. However the priest in whose house three of us are staying keeps a good fire for us. I’m feeling quite fit as usual.

All the peasants do all day long is sit around the fire – and go to church about four times a day. The church going doesn’t do them much good seemingly because they’d swipe most anything not tied down.

While we’re settled down here I’m trying to catch up on my correspondence. For the last two months we had moved so much that I wrote to no one but you and Karolyn and I owe a good many letters.

In your last letter was Tom’s address. I must write him this week. I’m very glad to hear the old boy is getting along nicely.

My congratulations to Harry on getting in at Cornell. I suppose that will keep him right on regardless of the Armistice. I hope so because I think it will be a good thing for him

I think I wished you all a Merry Christmas in the last letter. Well it will be my last away from you all, I hope.

Your affectionate son,

Herb.

And here is a Google map view of Boxhorn. My goodness, wouldn't it be wonderful if I could find the priest's house using Google maps? My goodness technology can be a wonderful thing.

Herb has made it to Luxembourg

Well, I have been asleep at the wheel again.... I thought I had posted all the letters, but alas, I had only made it through the 19th of November. So, we continue our journey with Herb the following week:

November 27 [1918]

Dearest Family,

Today finds me in a small town in northern Luxembourg. I can’t say that I like it very much though I have a nice comfortable room in the village priest’s house. After the wonderful welcome we had every where in Belgium this country is sort of an anti-climax. In Belgium, the people couldn’t do enough for us. Even the smallest villages had some attempt at decoration in honor of the advancing troops and all the people were only too glad to take us into their houses. In the towns there were regular celebrations and being with the advance guard division we came in for them all. All the Belgians in the country through which we passed spoke French and were very friendly to the French troops whom they look upon as their deliverer. Here in Luxembourg things are quite different. The common language is German though a few speak French. That of course leaves me out of it because I have no German at all and am quite helpless. The usual sentiment, too, is pro-German. The government is pro-Ally because that is good policy or the people have to accept us but they don’t do it because they like us overly well. Any way they are suspicious of all soldiers on general principles because the Germans used to steal from them. The priest speaks French with a German accent and is nice to us from motives of policy but I strongly suspect him of being pro-German. However he keeps fire in all our rooms so I shouldn’t be too harsh on him I suppose.

During all our trip through Belgium the weather was wonderful. It just was cold, to be sure, below freezing point most of the time but clear and bracing. Just like the good winter weather home, in fact and a great relief after the rain and dampness in France. Just as soon as we truck Luxembourg that changed and we have had three days of very disagreeable rainy weather. The country is very pretty, mountainous and well wooded. The roads are wonderful though the frequently almost double back on themselves in winding around through the steep hills.

There have been several deliveries of mail this past week but no letters from you or Karolyn. I had one letter from Nellie Graham and one from Mr. Friedman. Mrs. Friedman is working in Washington on the Labor Board now. They have a baby son but Mrs. F didn’t say when it was born. His name is Francis Lee.

There is no news about what is going to happen to us. Perhaps we shall find out before long. With best love,
Your affectionate son + brother
Herb.





I wonder who the priest was. I wonder if one could ever know/find out.

What a wonderful vision - of people welcoming the troops. I suppose we have seen it imagined in plenty of movies.

I am reading a book right now in which the father comes home from WW1 shell shocked. I wonder if Herb ever suffered from shell shock.

For those who have everything: Personalized thumbprint rug

I have been a little remiss recently with my blogging. Sorry about that...

I found this, though, the other day, in the November 13th edition of The Week:

"Forget selfies." With his Thumbprint carpets (from $3,500), New York rug designer Joseph Carini "has found a new way to satisfy the demand for self-immortalization," said Carson Griffith at The New York Times. A digital image of the customer's actual fingerprint is first blown up to room size, then sent to traditional weavers in Nepal who produce an exact replica in an all-natural rug made in the customer's choice of colors and materials. Though humility might prompt some potential customers to consider Carini's other carpets instead, there's "something magnetic about the undeniably personal nature of the Thumbprint rugs — and the digital-meets-analog precision with which they're made." 

$3,500 for a 6x6 foot carpet at carinilang.com. The Week sourced this information from the New York Times.

I thought this tidbit was a fun combination of family history (sorta) and fiber art.

Looking at their web page... this carpet is similar to some of the things I have been thinking about and one thing I have done, as discussed here.

In collaboration with the Street Artist Elik.
This carpet was a part of our Back Against the Wall: Graffiti Show.