In the news

When scientists wear blinders.

            Two recent articles reveal why scientific information is rendered less valuable by a narrow view of the subject by investigators. Some researchers simply are unable to see factors beyond their field of study that would affect, perhaps negate, their conclusions.

            In Obesity tied to worse brain health in children, the authors report that a study of nearly 12,000 children revealed that obesity is linked to “pervasive loss of white matter integrity and neurite density, cortical gray matter thinning, and decreased connectivity within and between networks that have been associated with impulse control and reward-based decision making.” (Note: This is an article in Medscape based on an abstract presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, therefore there was no original paper that I could access for more details.)

            Obesity is a form of dysnutrition, that is, the body receives excess calories but too few nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Obese persons, especially adolescents, consume almost no plant foods (except for french fries). In actual surveys, the average teenager takes in only 0.9 servings of fruits and vegetables per day – less than 10 percent of the recommended number. They eat nearly zero omega-3 fats that are essential for normal brain and eye development. It’s not the presence of fat that hinders brain development but the absence of brain-building nutrients.

            I think that those scientists are simply looking in the wrong direction.

            On the same day that I saw that article another appeared: The surprising failure of vitamin D in deficient kids. In that study, 4400 Mongolian children who received vitamin D for three years didn’t become taller or gain weight faster than 4400 given a placebo. Note: 95 percent of these kids had vitamin D deficiency; more than 30 percent were severely deficient. Isn’t it possible that pretty much everything else in  their diet was also inadequate for normal growth? The  physician who wrote the column for Medscape offered some possible reasons: “Perhaps the dose wasn’t given correctly, or three  years isn’t long enough to see a real difference (C’mon, man !!!), or the growth metrics were wrong, or vitamin D needs to be given alongside something else to really work and so on”.

            That last part might have hit the nail on the head – many somethings! All the studies that compare a group given a supplement with a group given a placebo suffer from the same defect: adding a single vitamin or other supplement to one’s diet and expecting significant results makes no sense. Vitamins, as well as other nutrients, never act alone. A normal diet for humans consists of several thousand nutrients, most of which are found in plant foods. Expecting to see a difference when adding more of only one out of thousands is not what I would expect from nutrition experts.

            BTW – if  you’re wondering how nearly 100 percent of Mongolian kids could be vitamin-D deficient, consider that Ulan Bator is at about the same latitude as Winnipeg, Canada. If you draw a line from Los Angeles to Atlanta, residents above that line get almost no vitamin D from sun exposure for about six months of the year – and Ulan Bator is waaaay farther north than Atlanta. And do you think that those kids are getting vitamin D-fortified milk like our kids?

Lifestyle

Most seniors (sorry – that means about 55) don’t sleep through the night, mostly for bathroom visits, sometimes because of medical issues. In a drowsy state, falls are more likely, so there are some safety tips that are recommended in the book Why we sleep by Matthew Walker – an excellent read for people of all ages because sleep disorders of one type or another affect more than half the population.  

Some tips to avoid falls:

Don’t get out of bed quickly. As we get older it takes a few seconds of sitting on the side of the bed to allow blood vessels to adjust so that we don’t get light-headed. This is known as postural hypotension. (Don’t let it bother you. It’s very common in adolescents too, whose bodies are going through a lot of adjustments.)

Have a light and a phone on the nightstand.

Consider motion-sensitive night lights. We have two from Amazon (of course) for only about $10 for both. They plug in, fit the décor just fine, intensity is adjustable.

Get rid of loose carpeting.

Check with your physician if you are taking a new medication. Some of them are associated with a risk of falls, especially antidepressants and sleep aids.

A new (to me) kind of scam

            I received a notice of a possibly unauthorized payment allegedly from PayPal. There was an 888 number to call to delete this payment from my account.This is part of the scam. A professional sounding man with an Indian accent started to walk me though the process of deleting the payment but I smelled a rat and ended the call. Indeed, when I went to my PayPal account there was a list of ways in which this scam is perpetrated and the unauthorized payment appeared on my account. I was able to refuse payment. Sure enough, a Google search gave all the details of how it works. ☹

In the news

To mask or not to  mask.

It has been three years since an unusual virus emerged from Wuhan, China to cause the most serious pandemic in a century. The turmoil that it has caused is not just medical but has spawned economic ruin for many businesses, disruption of children’s education from kindergarten to college and public distrust and disgust for politicians and medical authorities. One of the most contentious issues is the effectiveness of masking. Has near-universal wearing of face masks made a difference?

Like many medical issues, “It depends.” It depends on the type of mask, how long it is worn, the circumstances in which it is worn, and how it is worn. The last issue is the most maddening to those of us in the world of infectious diseases.

Persons who wear a mask that covers the mouth but not the nose, and who might be shedding the virus from their upper airway, not only contaminate the space around them but are depositing virus particles on the mask itself with every downward nasal exhalation. When they touch the mask they contaminate their hands and everything that they touch. It should be noted that contaminated surfaces such as doorknobs, light switches, computer keyboards and money are seldom sources of infection, but hands are another matter. Hands are usually warm and slightly moist, conditions that prolong the survivability of the virus.

Making cloth masks became a cottage industry in the early months of the pandemic. A cloth mask, especially one that consists of only one layer, is pretty – but it’s pretty useless. Infected persons who wear such a facial ornament can actually increase spread of the virus, thinking that they are safe to be around when they are not. One can also become infected while wearing a cloth mask, since those little buggers can easily pass through such an ineffective barrier. To quote one researcher: “If you can smell smoke through a mask you are also inhaling viruses into your respiratory tract.”

The N95 mask is the gold standard, but only if your standards are very low. It was not designed for medical purposes; the so-called “medical N95” mask gives a false sense of security. It does work, however, to lower the risk of transmission provided that it is fitted properly, that the fit is verified by another person, that it is not worn for more than a few hours– nobody knows how much is a “few” – and the wearer does not touch the mask – ever! The WHO recommends changing the masks every time they are touched!

In a study of several types of masks by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health it was found that a medical mask – the blue-on-the-outside-and-white-on-the-inside one that is worn by most people, 48 percent of cough aerosols and 58 percent of exhaled aerosols got through the  mask. This was improved significantly (but not reassuring to me) by wearing a second cloth mask. Fifteen percent of cough aerosols and 9 percent of exhaled aerosols still got through.

So is masking worthwhile? It is as long as it’s the right type of mask, is fitted properly, is not touched, and is not worn for more than about six hours. Just don’t expect it to be completely protective. After all, Saint Anthony (Fauci) wears two at a time, has received four vaccines and tested positive twice in about one month.