Tag Archives: public health

Researchers Looking into 2 Week Allergy Treatment

Posted on November 18, 2019 by | Leave a comment

Globally, 220-520 million people suffer from food-related allergies that range from mild discomfort to being the cause of death. Chances are, there is someone in your course affected by this chronic illness. Currently, there are no approved treatments for these allergies other than completely omitting them from your diet, using antihistamines or epinephrine when allergy symptoms appear, or oral immunotherapy. However, it’s very difficult to avoid cross-contamination, especially when you need to eat food someone else has prepared and immunotherapy takes 9-12 months, causing allergic reactions along the way. But what if there was a way to desensitize, even completely remove the immune systems’ response to food that cause allergies in as little as 2 weeks without causing a reaction?

From a small study released on Nov 14, 2019, the researchers from Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research at Stanford University has found that when targeting the alarmin IL-33 (a signal that initiates inflammatory responses) in peanut-allergic people with etokimab (an antibody injection) there was a 73% increase in the tolerance threshold for the allergy compared to the placebo group. These people could eat moderate amounts of peanuts (no more than 300 mg) 15 days after the injection without having to be expose to the allergen beforehand. This percentage dropped to a 57% increase after 45 days.

Since this is a relatively new study, there are still some improvements to be made on the procedure itself. The sample of the double-blind experiment was only 20 adults with 15  adults receiving estimable and 5 adults receiving the placebo, and the results were self-reported, which can cause a lot of variability in the data. However, the results from this small experiment was promising, and personally, I hope that etokimab will be available for the public use in the next few decades. It would be extremely helpful to eat out without having to worry about being rushed to the hospital due to accidental contamination or even just to see what peanuts would taste like.

-Sharon Li

Leave a comment

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

Tagged , , , ,

Should we end Daylight Saving Time?

Posted on November 11, 2019 by | 6 comments

Who hasn’t looked at their clock early in the morning and wished for an extra hour in bed? Well, as of last week, daylight saving time has finally come to an end, which means an extra hour of sweet sleep. Many clocks around the world have officially been pushed back an hour, and some researchers want to keep it that way permanently.

Daylight saving time was first introduced during World War I to save energy, and since then it has been continued to be practised in many countries. Yet, the health effects linked with daylight saving have been unclear, until now. Recently, Beth Marlow and her team have reported that daylight saving may be doing us more harm than simply making us lose an hour of sleep.

The team analyzed multiple studies that looked at brain activity and the effects of daylight saving. They concluded that a person’s circadian rhythms are thrown off by the simple time change. The circadian rhythms are responsible for behavioural, physical, and mental changes in a person, which can be affected by both light and darkness. The disruption to the circadian rhythms can cause serious and deadly health effects. For instance, Marlow found that there was an increased number of strokes and heart attacks reported during the start of daylight saving time. In addition, the lack of sleep caused by daylight saving time has led to increase in fatal car crashes.

So, why do many nations still practise daylight saving time? Well, as mentioned before, daylight saving does save energy. As the US Department of Energy found, the energy saved is equivalent to more than 100,000 households energy use in a year. Therefore, the economics behind daylight saving is a major factor for keeping it.

As Marlow and her team have reported, daylight saving time has major impacts on the health of many individuals, and like many other researchers, they advocate the end of daylight saving time altogether. However, the energy saved during this time has outweighed decisions of ending it.

-Anum Khan

6 Comments

Posted in Science in the News

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Would You like Some Plastic with Your Tea?

Posted on September 30, 2019 by | 1 comment

Image:Flickr

Who doesn’t like coming home at the end of the day and drinking a nice cup of relaxing tea? Well, before you take a sip, you should first take a look at your teabag.

Recently, tea companies have started to switch from paper base teabags to ones made up entirely of plastics, specifically polyethylene terephthalate and nylon. This caught the attention of Laura M. Hernandez and her team over at McGill University, in which they recently published their findings showing that plastic teabags, also known as silken bags, release billions of plastic particles into the tea that is consumed.

Image:Flickr

The team took plastic teabags of different brands and steeped them, one by one, into boiling water at 95℃. When the tea bags were placed into the water they released about 11.6 billion microplastics (100 nm to 5 nm) and 3.1 billion nanoplastics (≤ 100 nm) into a single cup. The amount itself can be alarming, however humans consume an average of 39000 to 52000 microplastic particles annually, and this can increase based on various factors.

The question now stands, does consuming microplastics affect human health? Well, according to the World Health Organization, consuming microplastic has a low health risk in humans, but the amount of microplastics consumed should still be monitored in individuals. For instance, a study found that consuming large amounts of microplastics, over a long period of time, can lead to potential risks of cancer and toxicity in humans. That being said, microplastics effects on human health is an emerging field of study, as many microplastics are now used in everyday materials and products, such as in the food and water industries.

As Hernandez and her team have discovered, the teabags make delicious tea, but the amount of microplastics you are consuming per cup can be a bit concerning. Therefore, more research needs to be conducted on microplastics and its effect on human health.

– Anum Khan.

1 Comment

Posted in Science in the News

Tagged , , , , , ,

Dogs: more than just cute!

Posted on September 23, 2019 by | 1 comment

Angus, one of two “super sniffer” dogs trained to alert their handler when they detect C. difficile. Source: Vancouver Coastal Health

We’ve all seen (or heard of) drug-sniffing dogs, but what about bacteria-sniffing ones?

Since 2016, a team from Vancouver Coastal Health has been tweaking a program that trains dogs to alert their handlers when they detect the scent of C. difficile. Over an 18-month period, the two dogs (Angus and Dodger) that have been trained for this role have detected 391 areas at Vancouver General Hospital where this bacteria was found.

Clostridioides difficile, more commonly referred to by its shorthand C. difficile or simply C. diff, are the leading cause of nosocomial (or hospital-originating) infectious diarrhea. Formerly known as Clostridium difficile, the bacterium was renamed late last year to more accurately portray the genus it falls in.

Angus and Dodger were trained with scent training kits from the Scientific Working Group on Dog and Orthogonal detector Guidelines (SWGDOG), which allowed them to identify the distinct odour of C. difficile. Microorganisms smell due to the variety of volatile chemicals they produce in response to various external factors. In the specific case of C. difficile, it is often described as having a sickly sweet or particularly foul smell.

The symptoms of a C. difficile infection can range from mild abdominal cramping to life-threatening sepsis and inflammation of the colon. The full range of symptoms can be found here. Most cases occur after taking antibiotics, which may kill both the good and bad bacteria in your gut – these are known as your gut microbiota. 

Without your normal gut microbiota, C. difficile can take advantage of this “clean slate” and proliferate in your intestine, throwing off the balance of good and bad bacteria. Within a period of several days to a few weeks, infected patients will start to show symptoms – the most common being diarrhea. Ideally, somebody with symptoms of infection will have tests done by a doctor and undergo treatment if necessary.

The progression of infection and the post-infection considerations are shown below in this graphic published by the Centre for Disease Control:

The progression of a C. diff infection. Source: Centre for Disease Control

In a study published by the Canadian Journal of Infection Control, it was found that 82% of contaminated surfaces were found in common areas. These included washrooms, hallways, and waiting rooms. Even with the most stringent sanitization procedures, it was relatively easy to find in areas that are commonly overlooked! 

One of the areas that tested positive for C. difficile contamination was inside a toilet paper dispenser – something that I personally would never think to sanitize. 

While there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done before we can train dogs to safely detect all sorts of infectious bacteria, the developments of the canine scent detection program are notable steps in the right direction. 

For more information about canine scent detection of C. difficile in Vancouver-area hospitals, you can learn more here and through this page.

1 Comment

Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged , , , , , ,