Why aren't they hibernating?

What do aging, telomeres and torpor have in common? It may be that torpor slows the process of aging.

Aging is directly linked to telomere lengths. Telomeres, the caps on the end of our DNA, prevent the DNA strands from unraveling with each cell replication. With each replication however, telomeres become a little shorter. Without the ability for cells to turnover, cell death eventually occurs.

Scientists at the Department of Integrative Biology and Ecology from the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria have determined that hibernation and natural hypothermia slow the aging process. The researchers were able to measure the relative telomere length in Djungarian hamsters and found that daily torpor is associated with telomere length changes.

Now if only that research could be used to justify daily afternoon naps…

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Training dogs to detect cancer

A dog’s sensitivity to smell may be a thousand times greater than ours and with that barrage of information, it’s logical that a dog’s perception of the world around it, is nuanced in ways imperceptible to us. That’s why dogs have been used in detecting cancer, or bed bugs or lost people. So how does their nasal anatomy differ from ours?

Dogs have approximately 300 million smelling receptors compared with a human’s paltry 6 million. To process all that data, the olfactory cortex in the brain devotes 12.5% of the total brain mass to the sense of smell compared to less than 1% in humans.In addition, human nasal passages are constructed in such a way that we can only breath in and out of the same hole. Dogs on the other hand are simultaneously able to inhale air  through one part of their nose while being able to exhale stale air out the sides of the nares.

To read how dog’s have been used in sniffing out cancer, follow this link. Research published August 2011, shows how dogs have been trained to detect human lung cancer.

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People present with one of two types of cerumen – wet or dry – which is genetically determined. Dry cerumen is off-white, flakey and is more common in Asians and Native Americans. Wet cerumen is golden-brown and is more common in Caucasians.

As to the function of ear wax, it is believed that the acidic  nature of cerumen contributes to its antimicrobial properties and the lipid properties helps the ear to repel water. In addition the wax helps to prevent foreign bodies (like insects) from entering the ear.

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Space is limited under the eyelid and unless the lens has perforated the conjunctival sac – which is extremely rare – the lens may have wandered up into this recessed area.

If the eye has become painful, a topical anesthetic can be used. A painful eye is usually the sign of a corneal abrasion usually resulting from vigorous attempts to remove an absent lens. Fluorescein dye can also be instilled which will stain the contact lens yellow. It works to locate soft lens but the lens will be ruined.

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Actually, the study held a number of surprises for me - I discovered that coffee contains many biologically active compounds that are powerful antioxidants which can affect glucose metabolism, reduce inflammation and affect sex hormone levels and that these benefits are from the non-caffeine components of coffee. I also hadn’t known that previous studies of coffee had been associated with a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease, gall bladder disease and liver disease.

The study of 47,911 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, who reported drinking coffee, were followed from 1986 to 2006. During this period of time, 5,035 men developed prostate cancer including 642 with lethal prostsate cancers. The study found that those men who drank the most coffee (6 or more cups/day) had a 60% lower risk of developing lethal prostate cancer.

Other findings included:

• Drinking 1-3 cups/day reduced the risk of developing lethal prostate cancer by 30%
• Drinking 6 or more cups/day reduced the overall risk of developing any form of prostate cancer – not just the lethal kind noted above.
• Risk reduction occured whether men drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.

Currently these researchers are planning additional studies to understand what the mechanisms are that cause the risk reduction. It’s yet to be seen if these benefits help reduce the risk of other types of cancer in women as well.

Since the benefits are associated with decaffeinated coffee, I won’t be advising my patients to cut back on their coffee consumption – in fact, I’ll be sure to mention this important study to my male patients…

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Do not suck the venom from a snake bite

I was reading through a great, little book called, “Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You’d Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini”, when I came across this question. The authors, Mark Leyner and Billy Goldberg, MD, have a devilish college-frat sense of humor and there are certain sections of the book (like Bathroom Humor) whose questions fascinate and repulse at the same time. The answer to the above question is family-friendly enough to quote. Here’s the unedited answer from the book:

I love a good Western and nothing could be more bad-ass than biting into a snake wound and spitting out the venom. Of course, this would be followed by some whiskey and a good gunfight.

Unfortunately, this is no longer an accepted practice. Sucking at a snakebite is not only ineffective but could lead to an infection at the wound site.

According to the American Red Cross, these steps should be taken after a snakebite:

1. Wash the bite with soap and water.
2. Immobilize the bitten area and keep it lower than the heart.
3. Get medical help

Toxicology experts might also suggest applying a tourniquet loosely above the bite to prevent the venom from spreading. This must be done with caution as the tourniquet itself can cause problems if it cuts off the blood flow entirely.

The person then needs to be transported rapidly to an emergency room. Antivenin is available for a variety of different snakes. Other treatments include antibiotics and surgery.

Of the estimated one hundred and twenty different types of snakes found in the United States, about twenty are poisonous. Most bites occur in the southwestern part of the nation, but they even occur in New York City. In New York State there are three species of poisonous snakes, the timber rattlesnake, the massasauga rattlesnake, and the copperhead. In the city, however, most bites occur from snakes that are kept as pets.

Here’s a sampling of other questions asked in the book:

• Why do men have nipples?
• Why do you laugh when tickled?
• Can a woman ejaculate?
• Does marijuana help glaucoma?
• Why can you ignite a fart?
• Can you drink your own urine?
• Is there really a medication that acts like a truth serum?

You get the drift….If you’re interested in a copy of the book, follow this link.

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I was reading about the effects of this in Mary Roach’s new book, “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void”. NASA investigated the effects of G-force on the body. Just to review, G force is the gravitational force that is exerted on the body when it is accelerated. 1-G is the force that gravity exerts on a body at rest and is equal to your weight. When we talk about 2-Gs we are talking about a force exerted on a body that is double our body weight. For comparison, a typical jet fighter pilot can experience (very) short durations of G forces anywhere from 9 – 12 Gs.

Since Mary Roach explains what happens to a person in a high-impact crash better than I ever could, I’ll quote directly from her book:

…the extent of an accident victim’s injuries will depend not only on how many G’s of force there were, but on how long it takes the vehicle to come to rest. If a car stops short the instant it hits a wall, say, the driver may endure a split-second peak load of 100 G’s. If the car has a collapsing hood – a common safety feature these days – the energy of those same 100 G’s is released more gradually, reducing the peak force to maybe 10 G’s – highly survivable.

The longer it takes the car to stop moving, the better – with one dangerous exception. To understand it, you need to understand what is happening to a body during a crash. Different types of tissue accelerate more quickly or slowly, depending on their mass. Bone accelerates faster than flesh. Your skull, in a lateral (side) impact, leaves your cheeks and the tip of your nose behind. You can see this in a freeze-frame of a boxer’s face as he’s punched in the side of the head. In a head-on, your frame gets moving first. It’s hurled forward until it’s stopped – by the shoulder belt or by the steering wheel – and then it rebounds backward. A fraction of a second later than your frame began moving forward, your heart and other organs depart. This means that as the heart is launched forward, it collides with the ribcage on its journey back the other way. Everything’s moving forward and back at different rates, colliding with the chest walls and rebounding. And all of this is happening within a few milliseconds. So fast that bouncing and rebounding are the wrong words. Things are vibrating in there.

By the way, vibrating is VERY bad – if the organ vibrates at its resonating frequency, it can turn to mush – similar to the shattering that occurs when a singer hits just the right note and breaks a glass.

So back to our body. The body can endure a fraction of a second of high Gs (15-45) depending on the position it’s in when the injury is sustained but if the body is subjected to that intensity for longer than a fraction of a second, the G force can rip organs from their veins and arteries. This is apparently what happened to Lady Diana during her horrific car crash back in 1997 which tore her pulmonary vein from the heart. It was estimated that the G force she endured was between 70 and 100 Gs. I’ve read estimates that said that if she had been wearing a seat belt, the G forces would have been between 30-35 Gs – survivable in other words.

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It depends on who you ask. For a humorous response, refer to the diagram on the left.

For a scientific response, read this response by Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious diseases at Weill Cornell Medical College which appeared in the NY Times Q&A column recently. Follow this link for the answer.

Either way, you decide!

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Not all iron however is easily absorbed. Iron found in plant based foods needs to be reduced to a  useable form before it can be used. This is why it’s important to take iron with Vitamin C which aids in absorption. On the other hand, iron found in animal sources does not need to be reduced so it is directly absorbed from the GI tract.

If you are on iron supplements, it’s important that you continue to take your iron (with Vit C) for at least 3 months (the life span of a red blood cell) and then usually for another 3 months after that in order to build up the iron stores in your body. As always, if you have any questions/concerns, consult your medical provider.

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Dealing with a cold is bad enough, but when it leads to a sinus infection, the misery can double. Some researchers have proposed a surprising remedy: channeling your inner Sinatra.

Sinus infections — which afflict more than 37 million Americans every year — generally occur when the lining of the sinuses becomes inflamed, trapping air and pus and other secretions, and leading to pain, headaches and congestion. Because the inflammation is often caused by upper-respiratory infections, people with asthma and allergies are more vulnerable than others to chronic sinusitis.

Keeping the sinuses healthy and infection-free requires ventilation — keeping air flowing smoothly between the sinus and nasal cavities. And what better way to keep air moving through the sinuses and nasal cavity than by humming a tune?

In a study in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, researchers examined this by comparing airflow in people when they hummed and when they quietly exhaled. Specifically, they looked to see if humming led to greater levels of exhaled nitric oxide, a gas produced in the sinuses. Ultimately, nitric oxides during humming rose 15-fold.

Another study a year later in The European Respiratory Journal found a similar effect: humming resulted in a large increase in nasal nitric oxide, “caused by a rapid gas exchange in the paranasal sinuses.” Since reduced airflow plays a major role in sinus infections, the researchers suggested that daily periods of humming might help people lower their risk of chronic problems. But further study is needed, they said.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Studies show that humming helps increase airflow between the sinus and nasal cavities, which could potentially help protect against sinus infections.

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