Tag Archives: health

The Impact of Sleep Quality on Personal Health and Academic Performance

Posted on November 23, 2020 by | Leave a comment

One of the most often neglected yet crucial components in developing a healthy lifestyle is getting enough quality sleep at the right times. Without sleep, the brain cannot function at the caliber that it is expected to, and can impair one’s ability to concentrate, think clearly, as well as overall mental and physical health. As university students, a lot of our precious sleep time is sacrificed due to the negative influence of electronics and time spent scrolling through social media, that we start to forget how much sleep actually means to us on a day-to-day basis and its impact on academic performance.

Why is sleep so important and why should we care?

Sleep is a crucial part of our lives due to its impact on a number of our brain functions such as cognitive sophistication (includes open-minded thinking, intelligence, and executive functioning), emotion regulation (the way we control our feelings), and social cognition (the ability to understand social cues and the mental processes that allow us to interact in the social world). These developmental milestones are strengthened as a result of adequate levels of sleep and help mitigate some serious health risks including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and Alzheimer’s.

The influence of sleep quality among university students

A recent study was conducted on the relationship between sleep quality and students’ academic scores among a total of 855 university students; 476 were women (55.7%) and 378 were men (44.3%). Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a standardized self-report questionnaire that is completed over a 1-month time interval. As a result, there was a noticeable observation regarding the differences in academic achievements, where students with poor sleep quality obtained lower scores, compared those who had good sleep quality.

PSQI participant conditions
Photo by Toscano-Hermoso, Maria
Source: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/8/2760

What is considered to be the “right amount” of sleep? 

In the following video from a TED series called “Sleeping with Science”, sleep scientist Matt Walker helps us understand the graphical correlation between the amount of sleep we get in conjunction with mortality rate. In addition, Matt elaborates on how sleep quality is independent of sleep quantity and a unique trend that is created from the relationship between these two variables.

Stop snoozing that alarm clock!

While it’s easier said than done, frequently pressing the snooze button on your alarm clock can potentially become a negative impact on your health. In addition to the risk of cardiovascular disease from a result of poor sleep quality, alarms can also be a factor of stress on the cardiovascular system when the snooze button is repeatedly pressed. This is because your cardiovascular system is assaulted time after time, and can accumulate across a lifetime. Hopefully, you can think about this the next time you hear your alarm and push yourself to wake up for that 9 am Zoom lecture.

– Gordon Wu

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Can music therapy treat dementia ?

Posted on November 23, 2020 by | 1 comment

Have you ever heard a Drake or Rihanna song? Many people would likely say that they have. Music is an art that people across the world listen to daily and while some listen to it for enjoyment, it also provides many health benefits such as reducing stress, anxiety, and improving your mood. But, these are things that you probably already knew about music. Research nowadays has been focusing on how music can be implemented in treating patients. A recent study published by Dr. Hei Long Lam in 2020 found that music therapy can be an effective method in improving the lives of patients that have dementia.

Dementia is a commonly increasing syndrome, which currently does not have a cure. It is also a general term used for the loss of memory, language, and other thinking abilities. Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells and this damage goes on to interfere with the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other which ultimately leads to an array of problems. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia which is the damage and degradation of the hippocampus (a part of the brain which is essential for memory formation). People who have dementia usually have a difficult time communicating, recalling information and worse of all this condition is progressive, so it will get worse over time.

Image: University of Queensland/google. This image shows how a normal brain compares to a brain with severe Alzheimer’s. As seen in the image the hippocampus has almost completely disappeared.

Dr. Lam found that music therapy can help dementia patients better recall memories, enhance verbal fluency, and dramatically reduces the patients’ depression and anxiety.

In this video, it is seen that elderly people with dementia are able to successfully recall memories and string together many sentences after listening to music 

The reasons for how music is able to such things have been researched extensively by many people. These researchers found that there are two main qualities of music that allow for these results in the patients. Firstly, the music evokes emotions and this can bring back memories. If music is paired with everyday activities there is a chance that dementia patients will recall the memory of how to do the activity. Secondly, as stated in the video above, music is processed and stored in many parts of the brain so musical appreciation is one of the last remaining abilities in a dementia patient. So even for a late-stage dementia patient, playing music is an excellent way of reaching beyond the disease and connecting with the patient.

Music therapy is a great non-pharmaceutical method that can improve many aspects of a dementia patient’s life. Despite these great findings published in the research article, they state that they have only scratched the surface of the relationship between music and dementia. Ultimately they stated that more clinical trials must be done to fully understand the therapeutic value of music therapy.

-Harman Sandhu

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Can Vitamin D protect you from COVID-19?

Posted on November 9, 2020 by | 1 comment

Vitamin D is often seen as the “cure-all” for several reasons, and has since caught the attention of several researchers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to several recent studies, researchers claim that there is not enough evidence to recommend the use of vitamin D supplements to prevent or treat COVID-19.

Why did researchers think that Vitamin D could help?

Vitamin D is obtained from sunlight or diet, and is naturally produced in the human body. Deficiencies in vitamin D are common, affecting one third of Canadians, and can result in many negative symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain, and even depression. Vitamin D is known to play an important role in the immune system as it helps strengthen immunity in your body, protecting you from infections.

The sun’s energy turns a chemical in your skin into vitamin D3, which is carried to your liver & kidneys to transform it to the vitamin D used in your immune system to defend you from infections. Source: Health Harvard

In a study conducted in Spain, researchers have found that 82% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a deficiency in vitamin D, however, many specialists questioned whether this is due to a direct correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 severity, or if other factors come to play.

What we know now:

The study conducted by researchers in a hospital in Spain in March of 2020, found that although there was a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, there was no relationship between vitamin D concentrations or deficiency and the severity of the disease, such as the need for ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, or even death.

Furthermore, another study claims that the factors associated with COVID‐19 deaths, such as old age, ethnicity, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension (high blood pressure), overlap with the risks associated with vitamin D deficiency.  This study discusses how healthier people are likely to spend more time outdoors (exposing themselves to sunlight, gaining more vitamin D) and eat healthier, compared to less healthy individuals, explaining this overlap. This makes it difficult for researchers to know whether the severity of the disease is directly impacted by vitamin D deficiency, or from other factors that overlap.

Should you start/stop taking Vitamin D supplements?

Taking vitamin D supplements is generally viewed as safe by health authorities. However, specialists advice to not take doses above the doses recommended to you by your doctor, as higher doses can lead to kidney stones.

Watch this short video to listen to what different specialists have to say about the use of vitamin D supplements in response to COVID-19:

Despite the lack of evidence to support that vitamin D could help treat/prevent COVID-19, vitamin D deficiencies should still be treated. Consider talking to your doctor if you have a vitamin D deficiency about whether vitamin D taking supplements might be right for you.

Looking Ahead

Until there is conclusive evidence on whether vitamin D has an effect on COVID-19, as Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law, said in the video above, “we have to be open-minded… and we’ve got to try stuff”, in regards to future research regarding COVID-19.

 

– Sarah Ghoul

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Does an Obesity Gene Exist?

Posted on November 9, 2020 by | 2 comments

Genes play a big role in determining how a person looks including our eye color, hair color, and height, but can your genes also determine your waistline? As of now, 61% of Canadians are overweight or obese and that number is even higher in America, with 66% of its citizens overweight or obese.  While these numbers can be attributed to a more sedentary lifestyle and poor diet, genetics has been shown to be a factor. A study in 1986 found that adopted children’s BMI more closely matched their biological parents than adoptive parents. While environmental factors play a huge role in a person’s weight, the importance of genetics cannot be understated.

One of the first genes to be linked to obesity was the melanocortin-4-receptor gene (MC4R). In 1998 a study found that mutations in MC4R would lead to early-onset obesity in children. However, this mutation is extremely rare, affecting less than 5% of those suffering from obesity leading researchers to search for more common genetic variations. Starting in 2002 scientists began to perform genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Instead of looking at genomes of a few hundred people, scientists could now look at entire DNA sequences of hundreds of thousands of people in order to find links between certain genes and illness.  A GWAS in 2007 led to the discovery that variations in the fat mass and obesity (FTO) gene were associated with higher BMI’s. These variations were much more common with 43% of the population carrying this “risky” allele of the FTO gene.  The study found that individuals with certain variations of this gene were 1.67 times as likely to be obese. Despite this, the FTO gene itself only raised BMI .4 kg/m^2 an amount much too small to lead to the increase in BMI observed (3 kg/M^2). This is why the majority of obesity in the population is caused by many genes, not just one. Since 2006 GWAS has led to the discovery of more than 50 genes associated with obesity.

The discovery of these genes not only can tell us who is predisposed to becoming obese, but who is also more likely to suffer from metabolic diseases associated with obesity like heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. This video from the University of Michigan explains some of the surprises that came from studying genes related to obesity and how we can use this information to benefit people.

YouTube Preview Image

 

 

However, just discovering these genes isn’t enough. In order to treat these variations, we have to better understand the mechanism of these genes. Recent studies have revealed that variations of the FTO can cause alterations in satiety that people feel, but the exact mechanism of these effects are still largely unknown. For now, proper exercise and nutrition can counter the effects of most of these “fat” genes. In the future, people may be able to find the best way to prevent weight gain based on their genetic makeup. Only time will tell if future discoveries can reverse this obesity epidemic.

 

By Dylan Chambers

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

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COVID-19 and alcohol use: Why managing your alcohol consumption is crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic

Posted on November 1, 2020 by | 1 comment

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm. It has forced countries to shut down and people to self-isolate. While self-isolation and shutdowns are effective methods of preventing the spread of COVID-19, they come with collateral effects. A recent report published by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) found that 25% of Canadians (aged 35-54) are drinking more while at home during the COVID-19 pandemic due to boredom, stress, and/or a lack of regularity in their schedules.

Image: Nanos/CCSA – This shows the reasons people are drinking more during COVID-19, this is important as it gives us invaluable information on what is contributing to the rise in alcohol intake.

A similar increase was seen in Australia, where there was an increase of around 30% in alcohol bought compared to last year. Alcohol is used as a way to relax by many, but it can harbor many negative effects in a time such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently debunked the misconception that drinking alcohol can provide you extra immunity against the Coronavirus.

Image: WHO/Europe/Twitter  – The image above shows the message the World Health Organization sent out on Twitter to explain to the public that alcohol does not help your body fight COVID-19.

In contrast, a study concluded that alcohol might increase vulnerability to the Coronavirus. Alcohol consumption at levels such as 5 – 6 drinks at a time or having more than 14 drinks in a week has a role in disrupting one’s immune system. It can do so by disrupting physical, chemical, and cellular responses that are a part of the body’s first line of defense. Furthermore, alcohol can impair t-cell recruitment which lowers the number of white blood cells that can destroy the invaders, which weakens the immune system. This is dangerous, especially with COVID-19 looming, as a weaker immune system leaves you more susceptible to infections.

In this video, Dr. Charity Baker states “Alcohol isn’t healthy and never was”, which explains that alcohol use is not a way to fight COVID-19

Alcohol can not only damage the immune system, but there is also a growing concern that the sudden increase in alcohol usage during the pandemic may result in greater cases of alcoholism. Alcoholism can lead to many health problems ranging from mental disorders to liver/heart problems. In a family setting, this can result in domestic violence and child negligence, contributing to the development of many other long-term problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression.

The future is dependent on what actions people decide to take now. The increase in alcohol drinking can become a problem if not addressed properly. The way to prevent an increase in alcoholism and all of the consequential problems attached to it is to lower your alcohol intake to a low-to-moderate amount (maximum of 1 -2 drinks a day).  The effects of COVID-19 are here to stay for many years to come and if alcohol consumption is not controlled during this time, it will only add to the persistence of these effects.

– Harman Sandhu

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Failure to Communicate

Posted on October 19, 2020 by | Leave a comment

Introduction 

Right now communicating science to the general public is more important than ever, and we are failing. Less than 50% of Americans say they would receive a vaccine for COVID-19. This shows the eroding trust that the public has for their once highly esteemed scientist. This is the result of breakdowns in the scientific method that have led to conflicting information being shared with the public.

Mask  Wearing

Perhaps the most notable slip up was the controversy surrounding masks.  While recommended now, it was not until April 3rd, three months into the pandemic, that the CDC began recommending the general public to wear a mask. This was in direct conflict with their earlier statements that only healthcare workers needed masks.  Scientists rushed conclusions that could not be properly verified before being shared with the public. The public demanded answers from a process that can take years, in a matter of weeks. By caving in to public demand, the CDC and World Health Organization were inevitably set up for failure as the pandemic progressed and more data was collected leading to new developments. Tweets from the U.S surgeon general like this

Tweet by Surgeon General Feb 29

only serve to fuel distrust when compared with tweets he makes a few months later.

Tweet by Surgeon General June 14

 

I do not fault scientists for changing their opinion as new data became available, but I do fault (some) scientists for stating their answers with confidence when the proper research and review had not been conducted.

 

Treatment

Image: flickr

Scientists have been under enormous pressure to find treatments for COVID-19 that can reduce mortality and infection rate. This has created haste in the scientific method and has allowed some treatments to receive emergency authorization from the FDA such as remdesivir. Even these emergency authorizations are accompanied by randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials that assure treatments are safe. These methods for testing were not present in the study of Hydroxychloroquine that led to its eventual emergency authorization.  The original study involved only 26 patients treated with Hydroxychloroquine that were compared to 16 untreated patients at a different hospital. Later studies conducted on Hydroxychloroquine would question its effectiveness as a treatment for COVID-19 and thus the scientific process was able to correct itself and the FDA revoked the use of Hydroxychloroquine. However, the public once again lost its trust in doctors. This opened the door to rumors and conspiracy theories to dominate the public view. In a pandemic where time is everything the spread of misinformation costs lives

By allowing leniency in the scientific method, we have opened the flood gates to all types of information being thrust onto the pedestal once reserved for the conclusion from the scientific method. Your uncle’s Facebook post about the healing power of Clorox bleach carries as much weight as the cutting edge research on COVID-19. Scientists have lost credibility with the public. This is not the first time this has happened, but it may be the most damaging.

 

Dylan Chambers

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Posted in Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science Communicators, Science in the News, Statistics, Uncategorized

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COVID-19 and Alcohol Use: Why Managing Your Alcohol Consumption is Crucial During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Posted on October 13, 2020 by | Leave a comment

The Now

COVID-19 has taken the world by storm, forcing whole countries to shut down and people to self-isolate. Whilst self-isolation and the shutdowns are effective methods of preventing the spread of COVID-19, they also have their collateral effects. A recent report published by the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction found that 25% of Canadians (aged 35-54) are drinking more while at home during the COVID-19 pandemic because of either boredom, stress, and/or lack of a regular schedule.

Image: Nanos/Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction

A similar increase was seen in Australia where there was an increase of around 30% in alcohol bought compared to last year. Alcohol while being a great way to relax also has many negative effects that in a time such as the COVID-19 pandemic can result in some very dangerous situations.

The Truth 

One misconception about alcohol that has been debunked by the World Health Organization (WHO) was that drinking alcohol can provide you extra immunity against the COVID-19 disease.

Image: WHO/Europe /Twitter

In contrast, a study concluded that alcohol might increase one’s vulnerability to the COVID-19 disease. Alcohol consumption has a documented role in disrupting one’s immune system. It can do so by disrupting physical, chemical, and cellular responses that are apart of the body’s first line of defense. Furthermore, alcohol can impair t-cell recruitment which means there is a lower number of total white blood cells that can go out and destroy the invaders, this results in a weaker immune system. This can be dangerous especially with COVID-19 looming as a strong immune system can help fight off COVID-19 with ease but with a weak one COVID-19 becomes a much greater threat.

From this, it can be understood that limiting the number of alcoholic drinks that you intake to a low-to-moderate amount will be beneficial for you.

Dr. Charity Baker states “Alcohol isn’t healthy and never was”

Alcohol can not only damage the immune system, but there is also a growing concern that the sudden increase in alcohol usage during the COVID-19 pandemic may result in greater cases of alcoholism. This is a concern as it can lead to many health problems that range from mental disorders to liver/heart problems; in a family setting, this can result in domestic violence and child negligence which can develop into many other long-term problems such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

The Future 

The future is dependent on what actions people decide to take now. The increase in alcohol drinking which is collateral of COVID-19 can become a problem if not addressed properly. The way to prevent an increase in alcoholism and all of the consequential problems is to lower your alcohol intake to a low-to-moderate amount, which is considered to be a maximum of 1 -2 drinks a day.  The societal and economical effects of COVID-19 are here to stay for many years. If alcohol drinking is not controlled during this COVID-19 pandemic, these effects will also persist for many more years to come.

– Harman Sandhu

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