A deadly superbug

Why are we not more scared of this? Seems like we are sticking our heads in the sand.

I wonder if the axe-wielding microbiologist and James Johnson have heard of one another. One hopes that they do research and eventually find one another.

A rare, drug-resistant superbug impervious to all 26 antibiotics available in the U.S. has claimed the life of a woman in Nevada. The patient, in her 70s, had been hospitalized with a broken leg in India, where drug-resistant bacteria are more common. She developed an infection in her blood, which turned out to be Klebsiella pneumoniae, a type of gut bacteria from a family of superbugs. Back in the U.S., doctors found that the bacteria were resistant to all available antibiotics, even those usually reserved as a last resort for multidrug-resistant bacteria. Within two months, the woman had died of multiple organ failure and sepsis. Health officials say her death is a grim reminder that drug-resistant bacteria are evolving, and that common infections could one day become untreatable. “People keep asking me, ‘How close are we to going off the cliff?’” James Johnson, professor of infectious diseases medicine at the University of Minnesota, tells NPR.org. “Come on, people. We’re off the cliff. It’s already happening. People are dying.

Taken from the February 3rd edition of The Week.

A chili pepper a day...

This is not something that I will likely take up... Though if I *were* to do it, maybe it would counteract some of the coconut oil I have been consuming.

Eating red-hot chili peppers may help you live longer, reports CBSNews.com. In a new study, researchers from the University of Vermont examined the health and diet data of more than 16,000 Americans for nearly 19 years on average. They found that those who regularly ate hot peppers were 13 percent less likely to die over that period than those who didn’t eat such peppers. While the researchers didn’t establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between eating peppers and longevity, they theorized that the fiery fruit improves fat metabolism, which helps ward off obesity, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. Capsaicin, the compound that makes peppers hot, is thought to be responsible for the health benefit; previous studies have found that this bioactive ingredient has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties. Researchers Mustafa Chopan and Benjamin Littenberg said additional studies are needed to examine how different kinds of chili peppers affect people. “Such evidence may lead to new insights into the relationships between diet and health, updated dietary recommendations, and the development of new therapies.”

Taken from the February 3, 217 edition of The Week Magazine.

Unhealthy dietary fads

Have I gotten caught up in this? Probably. For the amount of time I spend thinking about food, I should be freakishly healthy, but, alas, that is not the case.

I do believe everyone can benefit from cutting out gluten... just because most gluten people eat is in the form of white bread which does turn to sugar in our bodies. So, if cutting out gluten means people are removing white bread from their diets, I think that is a good thing. If they are merely substituting one thing for another, well, that's another matter.

People are trying all sorts of dietary changes to improve their health, but many of these fads may do more harm than good. Researchers from several U.S. institutions reviewed 25 studies, covering tens of thousands of people over 40 years. They concluded that the most effective diet for reducing the risk of heart disease is one high in fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and seeds—and very low in sodium, added sugars, refined grains, and fats. But they warned that people should be wary of certain nutrition fads. Coconut oil, an increasingly popular alternative to olive oil, is loaded with artery-clogging saturated fat. Juicing fruit and vegetables can remove valuable fiber and other nutrients. And there is no evidence that avoiding gluten helps with weight loss—in fact, gluten-free foods are often higher in processed carbohydrates than whole grains. “If you are gluten-sensitive, allergic, or have celiac disease, you should avoid gluten,” Andrew Freeman, lead author of the review, tells ABCNews.com. “Otherwise, gluten is not necessarily the enemy.”

Taken from right next to yesterday's post... March 17, 2017 edition of the Week.

I should really get back to the family history research... much more fun than regurgitating information from The Week Magazine.

Eat Produce, Live Longer

This should not be a surprise to us. Why is it so frickin' hard?

People striving to improve their health by eating more fresh produce may want to double down on their efforts. After analyzing 95 studies on diet and well-being, researchers from Imperial College London have concluded that we should be aiming to eat 10 portions of fruit and vegetables a day, rather than the five portions recommended by the World Health Organization. They found that daily consumption of 28 ounces of fresh produce was associated with a 33 percent reduced risk of stroke, a 13 percent drop in cancer risk, and a 31 percent lower risk for premature death. “Fruit and vegetables have been shown to reduce cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and to boost the health of our blood vessels and immune system,” the study’s lead author, Dagfinn Aune, tells TheGuardian.com. These benefits may be linked to valuable nutrients found in fresh produce, such as fiber, glucosinolates, and antioxidants, which can help prevent DNA damage.

Taken from the March 17th edition of the Week Magazine.

It Must Be True... I Read It In The Tabloids

I sure hope I am not alive when the time comes that we'll be doing this. But I hope that means we don't need this for decades, not that I am dead soon...

Two Brazilian researchers have created a special recipe to fight future food shortages in a more populous world: bread made out of cockroaches. The special bread, developed by two university students, is made from flour made partly from ground-up members of Nauphoeta cinerea, a cockroach specially bred to meet Brazilian government health standards. “We chose the cockroach because it was the insect that had the highest protein content—almost 70 percent,” the researchers said. They admit that most people now refuse to sample their bread, but add, “in the future, people will need to get used to this idea.”

I looked for an image, but it was too nauseating.

Taken from the March 17, 2017 edition of The Week Magazine.

Retirees Knit Sweaters For Chilly Chickens In Milton

Holy Christmas, how could I pass this up? Knitting sweaters for chickens? What a hoot.

And what wonderful women, choosing to take on this project. Gotta have a sense of humor and compassion.

I heard about this first on the 14th on my local PBS station, WYES.


Retirees Knit Sweaters For Chilly Chickens In Milton: It sounds like a joke, but a plucky group of retirees in suburban Boston has hatched a plan to keep poultry warm.

The unusual project began after members of a knitting club at Fuller Village, a retirement home in Milton, Massachusetts, heard about the hardships that some chickens suffer this time of year.

Certain breeds shed their feathers and grow new plumage in the winter months. Others imported from tropical climates just aren’t suited for the wintry conditions.

Organizer Nancy Kearns said the project benefits birds kept on a neighboring estate known as the Mary M.B. Wakefield Charitable Trust.

“I don’t think in my wildest dreams I ever thought anybody made sweaters for chickens,” said Barbara Widmayer, 76, who started knitting when she was 15 years old.

A chicken with a sweater in Milton (WBZ)

Among the sweaters Widmayer crafted by hand was one for Prince Peep, a rooster native to Malaysia.

“There’s so much going on these days that’s kind of contentious in the world,” she said. “It was actually very calming to me to work on this.”

Another knitter, 76-year-old Libby Kaplan, said the experience has helped her to overcome her fear of birds.

“One person I heard say there were more important things to do in this world. ‘Make things for people that need it.’ I think animals need to be warm, too, and I’m so glad we did it,” Kaplan said.

The chickens seem to like their sweaters: Estate spokeswoman Erica Max says egg production has jumped noticeably since the birds began wearing them.

It’s got some members of the club wondering what exotic project to take on next.

Kearns said someone gave her an article about a need for blankets at an elephant refuge in India. Making something pachyderm-sized, she joked, might be a little too ambitious.

“Probably not something we’re going to do,” she said. “But you never know.”

C-Section babies at risk

I was under the impression that this guy's wife - name not mentioned here - was the lead on this information. I learned about her, Martin Blaser and Rob Knight when I took a course on the Human Microbiome through Coursera.

Seems we also discussed how the microbiome can effect your mood here.

Though births by caesarean section are often medically necessary, they can be harmful to a child’s long-term health, the Los Angeles Times reports. Babies who do not pass through the birth canal miss out on beneficial bacteria that help their immune systems develop and shape their microbiomes—the collection of microorganisms dwelling in and on the body. Consequently, those children are more vulnerable to metabolic and immune disorders, such as asthma, type 1 diabetes, and celiac disease. A research team at New York University may have found a remedy, however. Swabbing C-section newborns with vaginal fluids from their mothers immediately after birth provided them with some of those key missing microbes, including Lactobacillus and Bacteroides, which train the immune system to recognize and preserve other helpful bacteria. As a result, the infants’ overall microbiomes more closely resembled those of babies born vaginally. “This study shows we can restore, at least partially, the microbiome of the mother to the baby,” says researcher Rob Knight. “What we don’t know yet is how it reflects long-term health.”

Taken from the February 19, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine.

Exercise has limited weight-loss benefits

Running that extra mile on the treadmill may not make you any thinner, a new study suggests, because exercise alone can burn only a limited number of calories. Instead, the body actually adapts to greater levels of activity, which may help explain why people who are trying to lose weight often hit a frustrating “plateau.” The research team followed more than 300 men and women from five different countries over the course of one week, measuring their daily activity levels and energy expenditure. As expected, people who were moderately active—walking a couple of miles daily or working out for a half hour two or three times a week—burned about 200 more calories than the ones who remained sedentary. But intense activity didn’t necessarily reap more benefits: Participants who logged the highest levels of physical exertion expended about the same amount of energy as those who were only moderately active. The researchers suggest that the bodies of extremely active people learn to use energy more efficiently during exercise and to burn fewer calories while at rest. “We think this is a really common evolutionary adaptation that all animals use to keep from outstripping their resources and to keep from starving,’’ study author Herman Pontzer of Hunter College in New York City tells CNN​.com. Exercise can provide many health benefits, including weight loss, Pontzer says, but to shed a lot of pounds, “you probably ought to focus on changing your diet and watching how much you eat.’”

Crap, back to watching what I eat.

Taken from the February 16, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine. I am finially sorting through the papers on my floor. I think I need to dust down there.

It must be true, I read it in the tabloids:

Two strangers from opposite sides of the world who look exactly like each other met for the first time—and even their boyfriends struggled to tell them apart. Maddy Renslow, from Washington state, and Amber Eckart, from Perth, Australia, found each other on TwinStrangers.com, which matches look-alikes, and came face-to-face in California last month. The pair of doppelgängers discovered that they share more than looks: They both went to beauty school, graduated the same year, and have similar mannerisms. “It really kind of felt natural, like meeting a long-lost friend,” Renslow, 22, said of Amber, 23. “We instantly connected.”

How cool is that?

As you can see, reader, I am catching up on some old articles I tore out of the magazine to post here.

I wonder if they will be getting a DNA test to learn if they share any ancestors.

Taken from the March 25, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine.

Energy drinks affect the heart

Holy crap. Only drink water... No soda, no energy drinks. Maybe a beer or glass of wine.... (I say this while I down a glass of home made kombucha.)

Sugary energy drinks packed with stimulants like caffeine and guarana might give you an edge at the gym, but they can take a toll on the heart, increasing blood pressure and the risk for arrhythmia. In a new study, researchers asked 27 adults under 40 to consume one of three kinds of beverage every six days for three weeks: either two energy drinks; the equivalent amount of a beverage containing panax ginseng, a common ingredient of energy drinks; or a placebo. Participants who drank the energy drinks had a slight rise in blood pressure and a significant increase in a marker of abnormal heart rhythm known as the QTc interval, which heightens the risk for stroke and sudden cardiac death. These effects persisted for up to two hours after the energy drinks were consumed. “Our findings suggest certain energy drinks may increase the risk of having an abnormal heart rhythm when consumed in high volumes,” researcher Sachin Shah tells MedicalDaily.com. “While we wait for more data, some consumers should exercise caution and not blindly follow the buzz.”

Taken from the March 25, 2016 edition of The Week Magazine.

Good Week for:

Alone time, after an international study found that highly intelligent people tend to be happier when they spend more time alone, working on their goals and interests, and less time socializing with other people.

Hmmm. what does this say about the people in Lafayette, Louisiana? The happiest people in the United States? Just teasing.... I suspect we can possibly assume that the reason to live is to love and be loved, so community is what makes most people happy. And food, let's add food to what makes people happy.... At least for me.

I notice that New Orleans is not on that list... And New York, the most unhappy? Yikes. What does that say about all my ancestors? Guess it's a good thing we left!

Tidbit taken from the December 2, 2016 The Week Magazine.

Some People are Insane....

I know we all love our pets; and pets make us healthier and happier, but this is a little far. I suppose it seems natural to the Bridges. Their pet just got too big. But, really. Wow.

Ronnie and Sherron Bridges of Quinlan, Texas, have a pet 2,500-pound buffalo that has the run of their house. The bison’s name is Wild Thing, and he’s lived as the couple’s pet since they sold the rest of their herd when he was a calf. Wild Thing, 11, roams freely through the house and eats his breakfast at the kitchen table. “I’m surprised he doesn’t do more damage with his 400-pound head,” Ronnie said. “He has a barn and land to walk about in, but he loves coming in to watch TV; he likes fast-moving stuff, so doesn’t much care for the news.”

Taken from the February 24, 2017 edition of the Week Magazine.