Plastics are ubiquitous in our environment. Much has been made about the increasing amounts all around us, in intended and unintended places. A new study indicates that one of those unintended places is now our bloodstream. This is the first step to understanding their potential toxicity, so it pays us to look carefully at what the scientists did and did not find.
Disease
COVID’s Delta Variant is far more infectious than the earlier versions. It also differs in which age group is most susceptible, as this study from South Korea points out.
Biologically, we live on the clock, driven by a neurochemical in our brains responsible for circadian rhythms. That tick-tock controls our sleep and wakefulness; the release of hormones; feeding; metabolism; even our immune system. When the rhythm of signaling is disrupted, our health can suffer. Those issues have been in the news as we recently transitioned to Daylight Saving Time. They also may have factored into the U.S. Senate voting unanimously to make DST permanent. Here we separate science fact, from science fiction.
I became most interested in the two reports on lead we ran in Dispatch last week. I had looked at this topic a few years ago, and at the time I was concerned that ACSH had on its website some older commentaries that seemed to downplay the danger of lower blood levels. Now, let me share some of my thoughts.
Recently Dr. Jeffrey Singer wrote about the one hiccup in the COVID-19 plan to “test and treat.” Pharmacists are not allowed to prescribe Paxlovid. He makes a compelling argument, but there are some downstream consequences that we should also consider.
You receive a phone call that one of your parents, no longer at “the top of their game,” has fallen in a nursing home. Not only fallen but broken their leg. Without surgery, they will be confined to a bed or chair; with surgery comes an increased risk of dying in the immediate “aftermath” of the procedure. What should you do? A new study considers those issues, which unfortunately are more common than we like to believe.
This article, which complements the one by my colleague Chuck Dinerstein, discusses the broad findings of a provocative study that ties IQ loss directly with childhood lead exposure. The study estimates that 90% of the children born between 1950 and 1980 had clinical concerning blood lead levels, resulting in decreased IQ levels. Certainly, these results will cause great concern among us baby boomers, and some might even say that this finding helps explain many of the world’s problems.
While the concerns from Flint, Michigan about contaminated water has renewed interest in how lead pollutes our environment, lead pollutants go back many decades. A new study tries to calculate the IQ points the population has lost because of lead. A more careful read does point out some of lead’s history – the good and the bad.
“Compared with white men, African American men are more likely to develop prostate cancer and are twice as likely to die from the disease.” National Cancer Institute [1]
The underlying “reasons” are biological, cultural, and societal. A new JAMA Oncology study looks at societal causes.
A new study looks at how those, who vape and use hookahs, inhale and exhale. It's an examination of duration, volume, and velocity. In other words, constructing product-specific puff topographies.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the sentiment about how a child's behavior is often transformed into how they act as an adult. A new study finds a connection between some early lifestyle and health choices and later-life concerns.
We're learning more every day about the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it will likely present surprises. The best strategy is still to prevent new infections.