Health

People get less sick from an airborne virus if they wear a mask – Infectious Disease Doctor

2020s, Covid-19, Health, Thought Provoking

An infectious disease doctor writes

It seems people get less sick if they wear a mask.

When you wear a mask – even a cloth mask – you typically are exposed to a lower dose of the coronavirus than if you didn’t. Both recent experiments in animal models using coronavirus and nearly a hundred years of viral research show that lower viral doses usually means less severe disease.

and more

Most infectious disease researchers and epidemiologists believe that the coronavirus is mostly spread by airborne droplets and, to a lesser extent, tiny aerosols. Research shows that both cloth and surgical masks can block the majority of particles that could contain SARS-CoV-2. While no mask is perfect, the goal is not to block all of the virus, but simply reduce the amount that you might inhale. Almost any mask will successfully block some amount.

Read the full article here.

Order of food in a buffet influence what is eaten

2020s, Economy, Food, Health, Thought Provoking

Interesting study.

“What ends up on a buffet diner’s plate is dramatically determined by the presentation order of food. Rearranging food order from healthiest to least healthy can nudge unknowing or even resistant diners toward a healthier meal, helping make them slim by design.”

Serving Healthy Foods First in Buffet Lines Improves Overall Meal Selection

Reheated pasta is less fattening

Fitness, Food

Yes, I was surprised when I heard this. Even better, the BBC performed an experiment to see if it was true.

A rapid rise in blood glucose, followed by a rapid fall, can often make you feel hungry again quite soon after a meal. It’s true of sugary sweets and cakes, but it’s also true for things like pasta, potatoes, white rice and white bread. That’s why dieticians emphasise the importance of eating foods that are rich in fibre, as these foods produce a much more gradual rise and fall in your blood sugars.

But what if you could change pasta or potatoes into a food that, to the body, acts much more like fibre? Well, it seems you can. Cooking pasta and then cooling it down changes the structure of the pasta, turning it into something that is called “resistant starch”

You can read the full article here.

Multiple Sclerosis breakthrough?

Health, Thought Provoking

Encouraging news from Canada on treating this debilitating disease. Not sure how fast this treatment will become available as the profile motive doesn’t seem to be very strong in this approach.

Eliminating MS completely and watching patients improve surprised both Freedman and Dr. Harold Atkins, a bone-marrow transplant expert, who started the study. The two originally set out to monitor the development of the disease and find a way to treat it. Their theory was this: Wipe out the entire immune system, reboot it with a transplant of the patient’s own bone marrow and wait for MS to regenerate.

“We thought we might be able to intercept one of the signals that initiates the disease and that would then give us a clue on how to treat it,” Freedman said. He jokes that they “had, in effect, failed because the disease never came back. No one expected to see zero disease activity after the transplant.”

Full article here.

Sleeping with the enemy – Getting in Bed with Gadgets #insomnia #sleep

Health, Tech, Thought Provoking

From OnlinePsychologyDegree.net:

New studies show that not only are most people sleeping with their smartphones in the bed with them, they’re also struggling to sleep well, even if they don’t realize it. Not only does the light from your gadgets suppress sleep-inducing melatonin, there’s a good chance that you’ve been woken up by a call or text message in the middle of the night recently.

Badgets in Bed Infographic

Biking with headphones

Fitness, Health, Thought Provoking, Travel

Being a regular cyclist every day that doesn’t heavily rain or snow, I’m shocked when I see fellow cyclists ride around wearing earphones in both ears. It was nice to read this article in Slate about why it’s stupid to do so, especially missing the cues about vehicles that are not in your line of sight that only come from hearing.

But even a burbling sonata can prevent you from picking up on subtler cues, and cyclists need all the cues they can get. Cars have air bags and crumple zones. Bikes do not. Cars have side and rearview mirrors. Most bikes don’t. Cyclists must crane their necks and look backward constantly. If your head and your front reflector aren’t pointing in the same direction, then auditory signals are essential to staying upright.