Tag Archives: health

Is exercising with a cold harmful?

Posted on October 15, 2013 by | 2 comments

As the seasons change from summer to fall, the first thing that usually happens is the decrease in temperature which then leads to people getting the common cold. The common cold is usually just a neck cold, which in other words is a runny nose, clogged sinuses and a mild headache. People with the common cold are told that the best cure for it is rest so that the immune system is at its best, but what about those people that cannot rest and feel they need to be in the gym? I can help with that.

 

image source: flickr

Some of the best exercises to do when you have a cold are walking, jogging, Qi gong, yoga and dance. Walking and jogging are considered to be good exercises because they are fairly low intensity, which means that it will not put much stress on your body, allowing your immune system to function at a high rate, and it clears your head while breaking a sweat. Qigong is an exercise that is a cross between martial arts and yoga that enhances the blood flow in your body and permits the immune system to be working at a high standard. Dance is also low impact and it lowers the cortisol levels in the body, which then will let the immune system to work at a greater level.

 

image source: flickr

The worst exercises to do when you have a cold are endurance running, lifting weights, using machines at the gym, and team sports. Endurance running and lifting weights are bad because they are high intensity exercises and require a lot of your body’s resources to do these exercises, which leads to the decrease in energy put towards the immune system. Using machines at the gym and team sport are not good because these just influence the spread of the cold.

 

Having a cold is not a good enough excuse for sitting on the couch and watching the TV, so get out of bed and go for a walk or a jog to clear your head, but avoid going to the gym so that you are not the reason that everyone in the gym is sick. Here are a couple of simple yoga poses to help with your cold.

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Source: http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/10/health/exercising-with-cold-flu/index.html?hpt=he_t3

 

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Posted in Science Communication, Uncategorized

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Peanut Butter Sniff Test

Posted on October 12, 2013 by | 3 comments

image source: wikipedia commons

According to the statistics of Alzheimer’s Society BC, approximately 70,000 British Columbians are suffering from Alzheimer’s or any brain-related disorder. What is Alzheimer’s? It is a neurological disorder affecting the cognitive ability (e.g. memory and thinking) and behaviour of an individual, and it worsens over time. The physiological cause of Alzheimer’s is the increase in the number of twisted fibers of protein within the brain cells and plaques between cells.

image source: flickr

 There is no cure for Alzheimer’s; therefore, prevention and early detection are vital. Assessments  of a patient suspected of having the disease includes physical and mental examination (e.g. MRI, or more generally speaking, a brain scan). The downside of a brain scan is the strenuous process of monitoring the patient and being on the waitlist, which takes months, leading up to the scan; however, there is a test still under study that could detect if an individual suffers from Alzheimer’s – it is called the PEANUT BUTTER SNIFF TEST. This test could be an alternative to brain scans. Also, this could allow for early detection of the disease, so preventative steps can be taken early.

Jennifer Stamps, a graduate student, and her colleagues from University of Florida used peanut butter to conduct an olfactory test ( article about the scientific research).

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Her group of researchers found that Alzheimer’s-affected patients had a decrease in smell sensitivity in the left nostril. David Knopman of Mayo Clinic, quoted by Singh, stated that “The idea that smell is altered in Alzheimer’s disease dementia patients is well known, and this is nothing new.” As mentioned above,  there is no cure for Alzheimer’s and the only treatment available is prevention.  Early detection of the disease leads to taking a more aggressive approach to alleviate the symptoms. The peanut butter sniff test could already be a clinical procedure used as a preventative measure for Alzheimer’s; however it is not very accurate because there are compounding variables such as: “congestion in your nasal cavities that can reduce your smell on a temporary basis, a past head trauma, severe past sinus infections”, according to Bartzokis, quoted by Oransky.

There are numerous arguments  made by other Alzheimer’s researchers against this study; however it is only at the beginning stages and Stamps is going to conduct more experiments to further develop her research.  She also gave a warning: “Don’t try this at home. Having slight differences between your left and right nostrils is normal, and you might end up freaking out over nothing.” In other words, for now just enjoy your peanut butter on a piece of toast.

-Ziharrphil Magnaye

References:

Alzheimer’s Society BC, Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Society UK, Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Shots,  MedPage Today

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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Are chicken nuggets chicken?

Posted on October 7, 2013 by | 3 comments

Thankfully, the answer is yes. I’m sure most people have seen the picture of the pink slime that was said to be the ‘meat’ of chicken nuggets; however, Dr. Casey Owens has proved it to be a false claim.  So what is the problem with chicken nuggets? It is the meat content that raises concern.

Image: Yipski

As I was reading an article published a month ago, I, an occasional chicken nugget consumer, felt a little bit cheated on by the fast-food chains that serve chicken nuggets. The researchers, who wrote this article, performed what they called “autopsies” on chicken nuggets of two different fast-food chains in Jackson, Mississippi and examined the stained samples to determine the types of chicken cells in the nuggets. Only muscle tissue from the breast and thighs were considered meat. In the first type of chicken nugget, around 50% of meat was found in the sample; the rest were fat, blood vessels and nerve fibers. In the second type of chicken nugget, around 40% of meat was found and the rest were fat, bone fragments and connective tissue. Researchers concluded that the chicken nuggets contained mostly fat.

The head researcher, Dr. Richard Deshazo, said that fast-food companies turned the lean-protein-rich white chicken meat, considered to be the healthier parts of the chicken, into something unhealthy by “adding in a mixture of chicken parts, battering it and frying it.” Being high in calories, fat, salt and sugar, fast-food chicken nuggets are a danger to people’s diets and waistlines, especially in a generation of high obesity, heart attack and diabetes rates.

Although this study does make me realize how unhealthy chicken nuggets are, it does have a relatively small sample size. Some fast-food chains do advertise that they use 100% white meat for their nuggets. More research on claims made by fast-food chains will benefit people’s health.

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References:

The Autopsy of Chicken Nuggets Reads “Chicken Little”

“Pink Slime” in Chicken Nuggets?

by Cherry Lo

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

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Emotional Eating: Is It More Than Just Psychological?

Posted on September 23, 2013 by | 1 comment

Image source: Blogspot

The beginning of October is fast approaching and with that we welcome the first round of midterms and an increase in our stress levels. As a self-diagnosed emotional eater, I always find myself craving unhealthy foods at this time. Which makes me wonder, is it all psychological or is there a more scientific reason behind this?

It is known that taste and pleasant memories associated with junk food play a role in our tendency to gravitate towards fatty or sugary food in times of stress. But a new study suggests that there is more to it than that. According to the study by Lukas Van Oudenhove and his colleagues, our stomach may be influencing our brain through the release of hormones. This occurs independently of any feelings we have toward a particular food. Suggesting that emotional eating not only operates on a psychological level, but a biological level as well.

M&M’s
Image source: Stuffpoint

In this study, Van Oudenhove and his team infused one of two meals through unmarked feeding tubes into the stomach of twelve healthy, normal weight volunteers. They were either fed a saline control solution or a solution of saturated fatty acids. By tube feeding them, the researchers eliminated the subjective and overall experience of eating, such as: tastes, smells, and textures.

After the volunteers were fed, the researchers tried to invoke a feeling of sadness in them. They had them listen to gloomy classical music and were shown pictures of people with depressed facial expressions. The volunteers were then administered a mood survey. The results revealed that those who were fed the fatty acid solution were more upbeat and happy after being exposed to the depressing environment, compared to those who were fed the saline solution.

MRI Machine
Image source: Wikipedia

In addition, functional MRI brains scan were taken during the study to further exemplify these results. The researchers compared the scans of those who were fed the saline solution to those who were fed the fatty acid solution. Surprisingly, they found that the fatty acid solution had actually dampened activity in parts of the brain that are involved in sadness.

 

This study successfully demonstrates that food can have a comforting effect on a biological level. Unfortunately, this makes it even harder to resist the urge to emotionally eat in times of stress. Although there is nothing wrong with occasionally eating unhealthy comfort food, we must still find ways to comfort ourselves without the extra calories. This is crucial in the long run if we want to lead a healthy lifestyle.

Below is a video explaining the chemical effect on stress on our eating habits, the consequences, and a possible solution.

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Reference:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/07/25/study.clues.emotional.eating/index.html

-Angelica Reyes

 

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Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

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Drinking milk during pregnancy will promote growth in children?

Posted on September 16, 2013 by | 1 comment

A pregnant woman. By Swangerschaft (Swangerschaft on Flickr.com) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

In a recent study published around two weeks ago, researchers proposed that the amount of milk consumption of pregnant women may affect the height of their children when they become adults.

The researchers selected 809 pregnant Danish women for the study in 1988. The pregnant mothers were asked to document their daily dairy portion size and consumption frequency. After birth, the weight and length of the newborns were measured and kept on file until twenty years later. In 2008, the researchers contacted the offspring and asked them to participate in a web-based questionnaire regarding their current weight and height. The researchers gathered all the data and reported that the mean adult height of the offspring of mothers who drank more than 150 milliliters of milk during their pregnancy was 1.2 centimeters greater than the offspring of mothers who drank less than 150 milliliters during their pregnancy.

Being a little vertically challenged myself and having a lactose intolerant mother, the article intrigued me as I scanned the page. I personally think that 1.2 centimeters, approximately half an inch, isn’t significant enough to create a correlation between mothers drinking milk during pregnancy and their children’s adult height.

We may think that ‘oh, maybe the children’s growth is dependent on their own intake of milk.’ However, in another study a few years back in 2005, it may not be the case. Researchers found that milk consumption of children ages 5-11 had little effect on the children’s adult height. They found milk consumption during the  adolescent years to contribute to a 0.3 to 0.7 centimeter increase in adult height. Again, a 0.3 to 0.7 centimeter increase is not a significant  enough of an effect on adult height; it is even less than the effect of the milk consumption of pregnant women.

In the media, milk consumption is advertised as the factor that promotes growth. I agree that it is true in a sense that the studies do show an increase in height of children after milk consumption. Though, I do not believe that it should be considered the greatest factor as there are many other factors that may have been overlooked, such as genes, sex, and ethnicity.

References:

 

by Cherry Lo

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Posted in Biological Sciences

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Green Tea: What are the health benefits?

Posted on September 16, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Green tea. Image Courtesy of Auto Connect Green Tea.

 

 

You will never look at a cup of green tea the same way again!

As we know, there are various studies which suggest that green tea is healthy and can halt the progression of diseases, such as cancer, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases and blood pressure.

To our surprise, however, there have been recent studies which show that green tea has a compound which blocks the production of inflammatory molecules.

” Researchers in Cincinnati, USA, have carried out experiments in human lung cells, treated with a compound – tumour necrosis factor – the triggers inflammation. When they exposed the cells to a component of green tea – epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EPCG) – production of a key molecule in the inflammatory process was blocked.”

Furthermore, Dr. Linda Johnson, a writer for the Alamogordo Daily News, explains how green tea has many positive health and mental benefits. She uses many examples, such as lowering cholesterol to illustrate her point. Moreover, some of the health benefits of green tea include increasing metabolism, controlling blood sugar levels, and reducing inflammation. Green tea also has calming effects on the nervous system. Furthermore, it can also help with preventing depression and stress.

Dr. Linda Johnson, Image Courtesy of Balanced Health.

Polyphenols, which have antioxidants properties, are found in green tea. Antioxidants prevent damage to cells and DNA caused by free radicals. According to Johnson (2011), “The aging process and many diseases have shown to be impacted by free radicals”

 Oh, and remember– green tea makes the best smoothies.

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References:

Balancing your health: Green tea has many benefits, How green tea reduces inflammation

by Amna Awan

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