Health/Fitness « Weekly Gravy

When a baby starts sniffling and sneezing, the type of bacteria in their nose may predict how long the cold will last, a new study finds. Babies with a wide variety of bacteria in the nose recover faster from their first cold than those with less variety, the researchers said. “It’s well known that different types of bacteria live in our gut. The respiratory tract is also home to a wide variety of bacteria,” said study author Roland Neumann, of University Children’s Hospital of Basel, Switzerland. “We are beginning to understand that the types and numbers of these bacteria, what we refer to as the microbiota, can influence our respiratory health,” he added. For the study, the researchers took nose swabs from 183 babies as soon as they developed symptoms of their first cold, and again three weeks later. On average, the babies’ cold symptoms lasted about two weeks. Babies whose symptoms lasted three weeks or longer had less variety of bacteria in their noses. Also, their nose bacteria was more likely to be dominated by the Moraxellaceae or Streptococcaceae families. Some of those bacteria are known to be linked with respiratory disease. The study was published Dec. 2 in the journal ERJ Open Research. The findings could help improve understanding of the role respiratory tract bacteria plays in infections and long-term conditions such as… read on >

More than 10,000 nerve fibers — many more than expected — power the human clitoris, according to Oregon researchers who were able to count them for the first time while performing gender-affirming genital surgery. That’s about 20% more than previous estimates, they said. “It’s startling to think about more than 10,000 nerve fibers being concentrated in something as small as [the] clitoris,” said Dr. Blair Peters, a plastic surgeon from the Transgender Health Program at Oregon Health & Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland. He said it’s particularly surprising if you compare the clitoris to other, larger parts of the body, including the human hand. “Even though the hand is many, many times larger than the clitoris, the median nerve only contains about 18,000 nerve fibers, or fewer than two times the nerve fibers that are packed into the much-smaller clitoris,” Peters said in a university news release. The clitoris’ only job is enabling pleasurable sensations. It consists of the highly sensitive glans outside the body and more tissue internally. Internal parts of the clitoris include the dorsal nerve, which is the main one responsible for sensation. Peters collected samples of dorsal nerve tissue from seven transmasculine (assigned female at birth but do not identify as female) volunteers who were undergoing gender-affirming genital surgery. A small amount of the tissue is typically trimmed during phalloplasty, a… read on > read on >

Escaping from a cold, wintery place to a warm climate can be fun for so-called “snowbirds” who migrate south for the winter. Still, experts say it’s a good idea for older adults to prepare by having a “medical checklist” to ensure both regular care and help in case of an emerging issue while away from home. “Snowbirds should have their medical checklists completed a month before they leave for their long-term destination,” said Isabel Valdez, an assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “The No. 1 thing I recommend is to establish care with an additional primary care doctor at their long-term destination in the fall and winter who can coordinate with their home doctor,” she said in a college news release. Check with insurance providers or with friends and family who live at the destination to find a reputable primary care physician. Ensure that doctor will be able to communicate with the doctor back at home, Valdez suggested. If you’re going to need to have a checkup with a specialist during the time you’re gone, work with insurance providers to find one that’s covered. “Some medical conditions that require the care of a specialist may only require an appointment once or twice a year,” Valdez said. “You might only need to visit the specialist in your home state, but checking… read on > read on >

A woman’s body appears to go on high alert after she loses her virginity, a new study reports. Specifically, her immune system ramps up activity in her vagina following her first sexual intercourse, researchers found. However, researchers can’t yet say whether these immune changes reduce or elevate a female’s risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection. For the study, published recently in the journal eLife, the research team compared vaginal samples collected from 95 young women in Kenya before or after they began having sexual intercourse. They found a sharp increase in proteins that control the body’s immune response within the first year after the women became sexually active. They also found that the changes weren’t due to either a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or pregnancy. Data from two other studies involving 93 young women in Belgium and 19 in the United States confirmed this observation, with those participants also experiencing an immune system spike following their first time having sexual intercourse. But because this was an observational study, the researchers noted that they can’t draw a cause-and-effect link between losing virginity and the increase in immune activity. “The initiation of sexual activity was associated with higher levels of immune mediators, but we don’t know for sure if the start of sexual activity caused the changes,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Florian Hladik, a professor in… read on > read on >

A particular brain wave may help diagnose concussions in high school football players and predict when it’s safe for them to return to play, new research suggests. Delta waves are markers of brain injury and perhaps healing. They tend to decrease with age, but researchers found increased levels of these low-frequency waves in the brains of high school football players after a concussion. Levels declined only after symptoms eased, the researchers observed. “There’s debate right now in the science literature over whether that indicates damage or if it’s a healing response to the damage,” said lead researcher Elizabeth Davenport, an assistant professor of radiology at University of Texas Southwestern O’Donnell Brain Institute in Dallas. “The jury’s out on whether or not it’s healing or just a kind of distress signal.” Concussions are a form of brain injury caused by a blow to the head or violent shaking of the head and body. Davenport suspects delta waves might be a sign of the brain cleaning and repairing itself after such an injury. They might also be a sign of the brain’s connecting cells, axons, being torn apart, she said. These two activities might not, however, be mutually exclusive. As the brain heals, delta waves disappear, Davenport noted. “What we’re really hoping for with this is that it becomes a part of the toolkit that doctors have… read on > read on >

Perhaps to no one’s surprise, new research has determined that men do, in fact, have a much stronger sex drive than women. After reviewing more than 200 studies, investigators “found that men consistently report a higher sex drive,” said study author Julius Frankenbach, a doctoral student of psychology at Saarland University in Saarbrücken, Germany. En masse, the research showed that men say they spend considerably more time thinking about sex, fantasizing about sex, feeling sexual desire and masturbating, compared to women. “What did surprise us,” said Frankenbach, “was that the finding was consistent across countries, age groups, ethnicities or sexual orientations. Men having a higher sex drive than women seems to be a quite universal psychological pattern.” But there’s a hitch. When discussing one’s own sexual proclivities, are people always honest? “Sexuality is a sensitive topic,” Frankenbach acknowledged. “So we also considered the possibility that people’s self-reports are not fully accurate. There was some evidence for such inaccurate responses in our data.” “For example,” he noted, “men reported having had more sexual partners than women, which, by simple logic, is almost impossible. However, we concluded that this response bias was relatively small, and could not explain all of the gender difference in sex drive we observed. In other words, we think that the gender difference is real.” The 211 studies reviewed were published after 1996,… read on > read on >

A “virtual autopsy” of a mummified 17th century Austrian infant has shed new light on Renaissance childhood — as well as the importance of vitamin D to health. The researchers used CT scans to examine the remains, which had been found in an aristocratic Austrian family crypt containing the perfect conditions for natural mummification. Analysis revealed that the child was a boy approximately 1 year old and overweight for his age, according to the German scientists However, his diet didn’t result in proper nutrition for a healthy body, creating a mystery for scientists. The child had been stricken by severe rickets or scurvy, diseases that are driven by deficiencies in vitamins D and C, the scans revealed. The child’s rickets had caused his ribs to become malformed in a pattern called a “rachitic rosary.” Bone knobs formed at the ends of his ribs, creating the appearance of a chain of large rosary beads under the thin skin over his rib cage. The scans also revealed that the boy had inflammation of the lungs characteristic of pneumonia. Since children with rickets are more vulnerable to pneumonia, the researchers speculate his nutritional deficiency might have contributed to his early death. It appears the aristocratic son was not exposed to direct sunlight, which allows the body to create its own supply of vitamin D, said lead researcher Andreas… read on > read on >

Smoking is an incredibly hard habit to break. Anne Levine of Baltimore can attest to that. But Levine, 58, is getting help from a potential new tool: psychedelics. The four-decade smoker has tried to quit a dozen times. But once she became part of a research trial testing a psychedelic drug, quitting became easier. Researchers think they may have found the answer to quitting in a compound called psilocybin, a drug also found in “magic mushrooms.” “There’s several existing treatments, both medications and other therapies, but they all have lots of room for improvement,” Matthew Johnson, a psychedelic researcher at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told NBC News. “None of the medications help a majority of the people long-term. Even six months down the road, it’s pretty small success rates.” Johnson is leading a randomized controlled trial supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. This is the first time in 50 years the federal government has given a grant to study a psychedelic drug as a treatment, NBC News reported. “The fact that the NIH is now interested in these types of studies is a great thing,” said Dr. Charles Nemeroff, chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Texas Medical School at Austin. “It’ll provide us with funding to be able to do these controlled studies,” Nemeroff told NBC. He is not involved… read on > read on >

A vitamin D deficiency puts you at risk for more than just weakened bones, a major new study reports. Too little vitamin D in your system can increase your overall risk of premature death, as well as your specific risk of dying from cancer, heart disease or lung disease, according to data gleaned from more than 307,000 U.K. residents. “Each of the cause-specific forms of death that we assessed echo the same theme – this being the importance of having sufficient vitamin D prior to facing any of these life-challenging situations,” said lead researcher Joshua Sutherland. He is a PhD candidate with the Australian Center for Precision Health at the University of South Australia. Vitamin D is known at the “sunshine vitamin” because your skin synthesizes the nutrient upon exposure to direct sunlight. It’s primarily known as a crucial nutrient for building and maintaining healthy bones. However, prior research has shown that vitamin D receptors are found in most major organs and human tissues, indicating that it plays a role in regulating many other functions in the body, the researchers explained in background notes. To examine the extent of vitamin D’s importance, Sutherland and his colleagues tapped into the UK Biobank, a large-scale biomedical research database containing in-depth genetic and health information from half a million participants in England, Scotland and Wales. The research team… read on > read on >

Even when eating nutritiously, healthy aging depends on moderating the number of calories you take in. Surprisingly, studies show that if you follow a healthy diet, but eat more than an average number of calories, you won’t fare any better in terms of healthy aging than people who follow the traditional Western diet. You want a lifelong diet plan that provides micronutrients, fiber and antioxidants while still limiting calories. That means whether you count calories or portion sizes, it’s important to keep track of all high-calorie foods, even the healthful ones. Here are some examples. While plant oils — such as walnut, olive, safflower, sunflower, grapeseed and sesame oils — are better for you than butter with all its saturated fat, tablespoon for tablespoon, oils actually have more calories — 120 to 130 calories compared to butter’s 100. Use an oil spray to coat pans before cooking to conserve calories when you really need to use oil. When eating a rainbow of veggies, winter squash and sweet potatoes are great choices in the orange color range, but 4 ounces of squash have only 44 calories compared to 84 calories for the same amount of sweet potatoes. If you need a large portion to feel full, eating squash will allow you twice the volume for the same number of calories. Among the most nutrient-dense fruits, a… read on >