YOUNG BOYS DEVELOP ABNORMAL BREAST GROWTH FROM EXPOSURE TO LAVENDER OR TEA TREE OIL

    Regular exposure to lavender oil or tea tree oil may cause young boys to develop prepubertal gynecomastia. It is a condition that leads to abnormal breast growth, Science Daily reported. Experts believe that key chemicals in the plant-derived oils act as chemicals that disrupt endocrine. The results of the study will be presented on Monday at ENDO 2018, the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Chicago. Interferes with hormones J. Tyler Ramsey, a post-baccalaureate research fellow at the National Institutes of Health, noted that society generally considers essential oils as safe. However, he pointed out that it possesses a diverse amount of chemicals and must be used with caution because some of the chemicals are potential endocrine disruptors. He explained that an endocrine-disrupting chemical is one in the environment that interfered with hormones and its action in the body. Although male gynecomastia before puberty is rare, there have been a growing number of cases reported. Forbes reported that three otherwise healthy pre-pubertal boys with normal blood levels of estrogen and androgens developed larger breasts after using products with lavender or tea tree oil. The gynecomastia went away after the three boys stopped using the oils. Three more cases of boys with prepubertal gynecomastia had been reported in a publication in the Journal of Pediatric Endocrinology and Metabolism.  The three had been exposed to lavender oil for long periods of time. Cologne was the source for two of the boys, although Forbes presumed that it is the people around the boys who used the cologne and not the boys. The reports coincided with topical exposure to lavender and tea tree oil. The condition went away after the boys stopped using the oil, Ramsey said. The two oils are alternatives for medical treatment, personal hygiene, cleaning products, and aromatherapy. Among the various consumer products with lavender and tea tree oil are soaps, colognes, lotions, shampoos, hair-styling products, and laundry detergents. Lavender and tea tree oil have estrogenic and anti-androgenic activities, meaning it inhibits testosterone by completing or hindering the hormones that control male characteristics that could affect puberty and growth, Kenneth Korach, a researcher at the NIEHS, said. Further analysis Ramsey and his team, under the direction of Korach, went one step ahead. They selected for analysis eight components that are common and mandated for inclusion in the oils from hundreds of chemicals that comprise lavender and tea tree oil. There are four common chemicals in the two oils -- eucalyptol, 4-terpineol, dipentene/limonene, and alpha-terpineol. Four chemicals were in either oil. These were linalyl acetate, linalool, alpha-terpinene, and gamma-terpinene. The researchers then applied these chemicals using in vitro, or test tube, experiments to human cancer cells to measure changes of estrogen receptor- and androgen receptor-target genes and transcriptional activity. They reported that all eight chemicals showed varying estrogenic and/or anti-androgenic properties. Some showed high or little to no activity. The changes they observed were consistent with endogenous, or bodily, hormonal conditions which stimulate gynecomastia in prepubescent boys. Ramsay said because lavender and tea tree oil pose potential environmental health concerns, these should be investigated further. He noted that many of the chemicals that the researchers tested appear in at least 65 other essential oils which are available without a prescription and are not regulated by the US Food and Drug Administration.     Unexpected ant-male hormone effects The findings have confirmed why an individual using the oil containing these chemicals may develop breast tissue, Ieuan Hughes, an emeritus professor of pediatrics at the University of Cambridge, said. He noted that the anti-male hormone effects are rather unexpected, but he declined to comment further without the data. But he pointed out that not everyone exposing themselves to such oils has adverse effects. He said it is possible that there are particular individuals who may be more sensitive to the effects of the chemicals, or are probably using the products in excess. Hughes pushed for the regulation of these products, BBC reported. Dr. Rod Mitchell, an honorary consultant pediatric endocrinologist at the Queens Medical Research Institute in Edinburgh, said that the research is important in establishing a possible mechanism for the suggested link between gynecomastia and exposure to the two oils. But he said that there are important factors that must be taken into account when interpreting the results. Mitchell noted that the tests were conducted in cancer cells. It may not represent the situation in normal breast tissue. Mitchell stressed that the concentration dose to which the cells are exposed may not be equivalent to exposure in humans. He noted the complex relationship between estrogen, testosterone, and other hormones in the body which cannot be replicated in these experiments. There is not sufficient evidence to support the idea that exposure to tea tree and lavender oil contain products that cause abnormal breast growth in children, Mitchell said. He said more epidemiological and experimental studies are needed. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Vittorio Hernandez 기자]

NEW BIOCULTURE REPORT ADDRESSES STI DISPARITIES AND SCIENTIFIC RACISM

  A new study found that Trichomonas vaginalis, a sexually transmitted infection, affects blacks more than others. The study was published by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine based in Baltimore, Maryland, and it speaks to the return of race science even though, of course, this is not that. Race science is predicated on the yet unfounded belief that intelligence and race are linked, and there is an uptick in progress for this mode of thinking. The correlation is that these things come on the heels of the release of a new report that marks significant progress for the broad field of anthropology: “New Directions in Biocultural Anthropology.” Obviously, the new report is as almost as broad in its scope as the actual field of anthropology is, but its focus is on bioculture. Major facets of biocultural anthropology are “critical and synthetic approaches within biocultural anthropology; biocultural approaches to identity, including race and racism; health, diet, and nutrition; infectious disease from antiquity to the modern era; epidemiologic transitions and population dynamics; and inequality and violence studies,” according to a press release about the report on MilTech. These are all critical to what bioculture even is, and the aspects that deal with race directly relate to both of the issues mentioned above — ethnic disparities with regard to health issues and the age-old, ridiculous debate on race science. TV infection causes trichomoniasis by way of a protozoan parasite. “Increased public-health action is needed to eliminate the stark racial disparities in TV infection and achieve racial equality in sexual health,” according to Aaron Tobian, the senior author of the Johns Hopkins study and an associate professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He and his research team analyzed TV results via urine samples collected from over 4,000 men and women between the ages of 18 and 59. These were specimens initially collected for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the 2013-2014 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Non-black men and women respectively showed 0.8 and 0.03 percent prevalence of TV compared to black men and women showing 4.2 and 8.9 percent prevalence. For black women who specifically have less than a complete high school education, live below the federally recognized poverty threshold and are older, also displayed a markedly higher prevalence for TV. The question, as usual, is whether these kinds of disparities are biological, behavioral or a combination of the two. Tobian conceded that the answer isn’t black and white, pun intended, but he did highlight an amalgam of contributors like sexual network characteristics and biological differences in infection susceptibility. With the former, he included the favoring of sexual partners within the same race as well as the lack of such favor. Tobian also addressed the idea of sexual risk behaviors like how many partners a person has at one time. On the other hand, he noted that this didn’t prove to be a measurable determiner in the TV infection rate last year. Another somewhat bizarre observation he made was that, though there are several other STIs for which blacks are inordinately affected in comparison to whites at least, TV infection actually represents the largest disparity, “Which supports the hypothesis that high individual sexual-risk behavior likely does not fully explain the racial disparity in TV infection,” Tobian said.     The new bioculture report will inform what anthropological concepts are taught to students in class, and among other things, this is one of the aspects that will be addressed. The report features “Comprehensive treatment of diverse topics within biocultural anthropology, from human variation and adaptability to recent disease pandemics, the embodied effects of race and racism, industrialization and the rise of allergy and autoimmune diseases, and the sociopolitics of slavery and torture.” Meanwhile, race scientists still posit that there’s evolutionary evidence for disparities in social outcomes like educational attainment, life expectancy, incarceration rates and wealth between racial groups. The presiding argument levies a lack of intelligence against blacks as the primary cause for their socioeconomic inferiority. This is the kind of science that has been bandied about and broadly disproven for generations at this point. The global scientific community at large views those who still cling to this fight as fringe researchers, but there is a nebulous and somewhat insular community of scientists who consider themselves experts on the subject, releasing more and more information to support these claims. Recently, right-wingers have been pumping out more of this kind of research than usual, and the then-Breitbart executive, Steve Bannon, wrote in July 2016 an article that contributed to this with the suggestion that some of the blacks who had been unduly gunned down in the street by police officers may have deserved it. “There are, after all, in this world, some people who are naturally aggressive and violent,” Bannon wrote, proceeding to allude to this biased science. As perverse as it may be, this fight is actually a biocultural one as the biological differences between people of different races are incredibly minute and nuanced yet ostensibly real. What is known, however, is that these purported differences are not the differences garnering any scientific legitimacy like those statistically observed with respect to STIs or, for that matter, sickle cell anemia proclivity or hypertension.  [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Cedric Dent 기자]

LUCID DREAMING TEACHES PEOPLE HOW TO BE THE MASTER OF THEIR DREAMS

  There are a select few people whose dreams have a strong connection with reality. Lucid dreamers have the ability to manipulate consciously their dream and turn their nighttime hours into an imaginative playground without boundaries. In 1975, science substantiated lucid dreaming when psychologist Dr. Keith Hearne trained his experimental volunteers to use their ocular signaling to indicate they were in a lucid dream state. The participants signaled their consciousness during the dream by moving their eyes left to right eight times, The Telegraph reported. The power to do anything Experts said that the immediate appeal of lucid dreaming is that it offers a superhuman ability to control the world the dreamer lives in even if it is just for a few seconds or minutes. It can be used to resolve waking-life stress and tensions or for pleasurable experiences. The dreamer can play out challenging situations before it happens such as a presentation or a difficult exam. Ian Wallace, a psychologist,a dream expert and author of “The Complete A to Z Dictionary of Dreams,” said that by using lucid dreams to work through challenging situations in the waking life, the person naturally begins to realize that he has the power to create the day-to-day reality he wants to live in. He pointed out that part of the excitement of lucid dreams is one realizes he has the power to do anything he wants in the world of his dream. He said that it is highly likely that creators and innovators such as artists, scientists, and inventors used lucid dream experiences to explore creative options that may not be obvious from a routinely analytical and objective perspective. Wallace cited Einstein who is thought to have used lucid dreams to help formulate his theories. Creators, inventors, and artists like him are known for their capacity for deep play. Here, they can be so absorbed in their particular area of interest that they enter into a flow state wherein they unconsciously shut out any other influences that are of no relevance. When does lucid dreaming take place? According to Wallace, lucid dreaming takes place during the rapid eye movement periods of sleep that can happen four times a night. He said it is most likely to take place during the hypnagogic and hypnopompic states between waking and sleeping. But with practice, it can be generated in any part of the REM state sleep. During lucid dreams, scientists have found that the area of the brain responsible for higher cognitive control, emotional processing, and awareness remain active. One brain part, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is involved in self-assessment, memory, and decision-making and is fully running during the process. Wallace said that everyone potentially will experience a lucid dream during their life, but possibly it happens without the dreamer fully understanding they are in a lucid dream state. He added that to have a lucid dream, a person does not need to have an IQ of 160 although studies have noted that frequent lucid dreamers have more grey matter in the brain. He estimated that around 20 percent of adults have lucid dreams regularly, up to half of them experience one in their lifetime. Because of neurobiological changes, spontaneous lucid dreaming is common during puberty. MTV said that lucid dreaming is a fancy term for when a person realizes their dream is not real and begins to take control over its entire narrative.     Another research that was published in The Journal of Neuroscience suggested that people who lucid dream are more self-reflective in general. It could explain why they are constantly questioning themselves and their perception of reality even in a dreamscape. In theory, it is estimated that around 55 percent of people will experience at least one lucid dream in their lifetime. But it would be much rarer to experience lucid dreams frequently and for longer periods of time. Inducing a dream-like state Live Science reported that taking hallucinogenic drugs places people in dream-like states. It cited a new study that compared statistically the way people talk about dreams in a way they talk about the effect of drugs, including lysergic acid diethylamide, mescaline, or magic mushrooms (psilocybin). To induce a lucid dream-like state, LSD is the drug to experience a type of dream wherein the dreamer knows he is dreaming and can often take control of his actions. The study, published on January 22 in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, said that drugs such as scopolamine and atropine induce a state that is a lot like low lucidity dreaming which makes people delirious and gives them hallucinations which they do not realize are hallucinations. Enzo Tagliazucchi, a neuroscientist at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina, compared the subjective experience of a hallucinogen with a particular aspect of neurochemistry that could help explain how the brain spontaneously generates dreams. The study illuminated the experience of hallucinogenic drugs and demystifying dreams. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Vittorio Hernandez 기자]

BE SMART, BE HEALTHY, LIVE LONGER,  DRINK COFFEE

More cups of coffee a day, keep the doctors away! Harvard School of Public Health recently released an article which stated that people who drink three to five cups of coffee in a day have less chances of premature death from an illness compared to those who do not. This superdrink in a cup not only helps you get up in the morning or boosts up your energy, it even discourages you from committing suicide. The National Health Institute observed that drinking two to four cups of coffee can reduce the risk of suicide in men and women by 50% and the risk of being depressed by 20% compared to those who drank decaf or less cup. The observation was based on findings that coffee acts as a mild antidepressant for it aids in the the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline. Before we account other coffee benefits, gratitude should be in order. First, let’s thank the Dutch who introduced coffee beans in early 17th century to Southeast Asia! The coffee beans, the pit found inside the purplish or reddish fruit are the seeds of the coffee trees and were planted in Java, Bali and Sumatra. It was traded as java coffee then and has become the world’s widely consumed beverage today. The Coffee Benefits So before contemplating on taking your life because that jerk of a boyfriend dumped you over a sleazy brunette who can’t even count her fingers. Maybe you feel hopeless what with the long list of family members who had dementia. Or that ruthless boss always foaming with nasty vocables for that sketchy report due last week. Take heart and hold that cup of coffee tighter than ever. This God-given java brew may help you overcome the day. It contains caffeine and carried in the bloodstream up to the brain. Coffee makes you smarter. As a psychoactive substance, it has a positive effect on one’s mind and behavior. According to a study, coffee can block the inhibitory effects of neurotransmitter, adenosine. This results in increased neuronal firing in the brain therefore, neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine are released and improve the cognitive functions. Coffee increases your focus. According to a study published in Psychopharmacology, a research journal, the caffeine is a stimulant, whether in small or large doses. It can keep a person alert and more focused. The study revealed that an 80mg of caffeine in a cup of coffee is enough  to keep drivers more alert and awake behind the wheels on a long highway drive. As compared to driving performance of drivers who drank decaffeinated coffee. Coffee helps alleviate headaches. This is because caffeine blocks certain receptors in the body that can cause the headache or migraine. When taken in moderation with headache relievers, coffee boosts effectiveness of medication by 40%. Coffee is the key ingredients in many pain reliever medications available today. Coffee is the large source of antioxidants and boosts essential nutrients. More than caffeine, coffee is also full of essential vitamins and minerals for the body to remain healthy. These essentials nutrients are 11% of Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), 6% of Pantothenic Acid (Vitamin B5), 3% of Manganese and Potassium,  2% of Magnesium and Niacin (B3). As antioxidants, coffee helps to avoid and delay damage to cells. Antioxidants are natural occuring substances which inhibit free radicals to develop in the body. Free radicals activate oxidative stress which loads up the damage in one life cycle. Regular intake of coffee with 1,299 mg of antioxidants, boosts body’s anti-aging defence against free radicals.   Coffee Against Heart Disease Coffee improves total cholesterol. According to the study of  University of Minnesota Medical School (UMMS) and the School of Public Health, the antioxidant found in coffee contains an enzyme called glutathione peroxidase, or GPx3 crucial in helping people with low HDL cholesterol. Coffee increases the high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol or good cholesterol and eliminates low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or bad  cholesterol from the body. The study explained that people with high level of GPx3 enzyme and low levels of good cholesterol have 6x times less chances to develop cardiovascular diseases as compared to those with low levels of both. Coffee reduces inflammation which can lead to heart disease. One of the causes of inflammation is the presence of free radicals in the body. Since coffee contains antioxidants, it prevents free radicals from developing in the body and therefore, decreases the risks of inflammation. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study which supported this benefit. Those volunteers who drank 8 cups of coffee  improved their HDL cholesterol levels by 7% and reduced the blood levels associated with chronic inflammation by 16% compared to those who did not drink coffee.     Coffee Keeps You In Shape Coffee makes you sexy by raising metabolic rate and burning more fat. A combination of coffee and exercise can help burn fat faster. Fats are stored energy in the body. The metabolic rate is the amount of energy expended. When metabolic rate is high, more fats are burned and more energy spent. Coffee boosts the metabolic rate between 3 and 11 percent. An experiment conducted showed that those people given caffeine 30 minutes before the activity had higher sweat glands density and more fatty acids than those who had non-caffeine drink. Results showed that caffeine indeed stimulated the sympathetic nervous system which increased the lipolysis. This led to high activated sweat gland density (ASGD) and free fatty acids (FFA). Coffee Relieves Asthma According to a study, caffeine is beneficial to normal pulmonary functions for non-smoking people. It can relieve symptoms of asthma since it has the same effect as theophylline, a bronchodilator drug. Because it is rich in caffeine, coffee promotes pulmonary health. It opens up the lungs’ airways and relieves breathlessness, wheezing and coughing.   Coffee Delays Dementia Dementia is not a disease but rather a group of symptoms of various conditions,  such as difficulty with remembering recent conversations, names, or events; also confusion and change in behavior. Researchers evaluated the effects of coffee to 124 senior adults from 65 to  88 years old with mild cognitive impairment. Results showed a significant decrease on risk of dementia for those who had higher blood caffeine levels. People in midlife who drank three to five cups of coffee a day had a decreased risk of dementia by 65%. About 1200  nanograms per milliliters of caffeine or several cups of coffee are needed to reduce the risk. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Kay Yeban 기자]

MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS CORRELATE WITH OPIOID DRUG DECLINES

    Two new studies, both published in JAMA Internal Medicine, indicate that medical marijuana may be having a positive impact on the uniquely American opioid crisis. To frame the narrative, it’s necessary to understand this distinctly American plight, though. The pharmaceutical industry in the US, being the machine that it is, commercializes and advertises so many opioid drug prescriptions for so many different ailments that a massive swath of the populace has been statistically shown to get on these drugs and then get on much worse, illicit drugs as a result. The scope of the problem has been its own line of research that, in the last decade or so, has proven to be incalculably insurmountable. In the US, drug overdoses killed almost as many people in 2016 (64,000) as a tenth of the total number of HIV/AIDS deaths that have ever occurred in several combined decades in America since the start of the HIV epidemic. Two-thirds of those drug overdoses were related to prescription or illicit opioid drugs according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as reported about a week ago. OD deaths went up by about 21.5 percent that year, which is almost double the increase seen from 2014 to 2015. There are now30 states in addition to Washington, DC that have marijuana legislation freeing up some form of marijuana use. The new research shows that legalization of marijuana use for medical purposes in an increasing number of states has translated to the US seeing many of the opioid addicts in America turning to marijuana as a means of curbing their addiction. Marijuana has been proven by many studies to not be chemically addictive, though it does still represent an easy habit to form for those with addictive personalities; nevertheless, it’s being used for the medical purpose of getting addicts off dangerous, addictive drugs with increasing frequency. Findings from these two new reports are only the latest in a series of studies from different teams of experts who have been finding similar results as of late. This is giving credence to a rising rationale in the US that marijuana should be used to help wean people off prescription and otherwise opioid drugs. A staggeringly large contingent of the American populace is known to abuse opioid drugs like heroin and oxycodone after being prescribed legitimate pain medication, and the authors of the new studies contend that those who can deal with their pain without getting on those gateway prescriptions tend to be far less likely to succumb to the opioid abuse epidemic. “We do know that cannabis is much less risky than opiates, as far as likelihood of dependency,” according to W. David Bradford, a public policy professor at the University of Georgia who worked directly on one of the studies. “And certainly there’s no mortality risk” when it comes to pot, which is one of the larger upsides. The studies just published don’t address cause and effect correlations for marijuana’s role in putting a dent in the opioid crisis, and that does represent a fairly significant hole in the argument that marijuana advocates are using these studies to bolster. On the other hand, one of the studies found that Medicare’s prescription drug plan dispenses opioid drugs that particularly decrease to a large degree in the event that people have access to medical marijuana dispensaries or the option to grow their own pot for personal use. “We had about a 14.5 percent reduction in opiate use when states turned on dispensaries,” according to one of the researchers, David Bradford, who chairs public policy for the University of Georgia’s Public and International Affairs College. Bradford added that there’s been an approximate “seven-percent reduction in opiate use when states turned on home cultivation-based cannabis laws.” These figures are separately impressive, but they compound and make an even more impressive statement. University of Kentucky researcher, Hefei Wen, works in the Public Health College and led the other study in which an opioid prescription decrease was found to have been covered by Medicaid in the states that legalized either recreational or medicinal marijuana. Both sets of legislation were correlated in that study with an approximate 6-percent drop in opioid prescriptions. “We do think there’s a good reason to be hopeful that cannabis might be one tool out of many we could use to address the opioid epidemic,” Bradford went on to say. Research shows that chronic pain is one of the main reasons that opioid prescriptions are proffered in the first place, and chronic pain also happens to be one of the lead reasons for medical marijuana use as well. This is viewed as one of the reasons why medical marijuana use is showing a correlation with slow but steady declines in opioid drug prescription. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Cedric Dent 기자]

NEW TRENDS, NEW RESEARCH: VEGANIZE AND SAVE THE WORLD

  Veganism is a growing cultural trend in many countries around the world today, and that proliferation is especially prevalent in Western countries lately who are arriving at all sorts of reasons why it makes sense. The phenomenon is growing at such a pace, in fact, that research shows food industries in Europe and North America will almost undoubtedly have to adapt to the trend eventually. This is particularly impressive in the US. in light of a new study that happens to suggest that, should America go vegan nationwide even just by themselves, an additional 350 million people can be fed. One other study raises a caveat of androcentric identity politics, however, criticizing men’s foray into veganism as potentially being a way of reinforcing White masculinity and masculine power. A Canadian poll now shows in its results that young people are more likely than their elder counterparts to go vegan, and it was conducted by Dr. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhousie University. Charlebois says that this was a first-in-kind study, and its findings define these young people as a group currently of ages 35 and younger and observing them as exemplifying triple the likelihood of embracing a vegetarian or vegan diet compared to people aged 49 and older. The data also shows that 7.1 percent of Canadians currently identify as vegetarian whereas 2.3 percent call themselves vegan. Over half of the self-proclaimed vegans being under age 35 is a statistic that Charlebois couldn’t help but find fascinating. “Those are really, really high numbers,” said Charlebois. “Even though we believe the overall rates have not gone up, they could go up over the next couple of decades as a result of seeing such a high number of young consumers committing to specialty diets. That will actually impact food demand over the next few decades and I suspect the food industry will need to adapt.” This, indeed, represents an entire demographic to whom the food industry will have to cater while older, carnivorous folks are effectually dying off and only becoming less and less representative of any given restaurant’s likely clientele. If trends continue in the direction they’re currently going, fewer and fewer people will be dining at the biggest restaurant chains in Canada, and knowing this, they’ll want to reorient themselves to accommodate this likely-to-grow group of vegans and vegetarians. Charlebois says young people are doing this for multiple reasons; some embrace these diets to mitigate their environmental footprint, others to simply reap the health benefits and others still in the interest of animal welfare or in rebellion to agribusiness trends. “A lot of studies are actually discouraging consumers from eating red meats specifically. Even the World Health Organization has made processed meats a category one product, which means it could cause cancer, at the same level as asbestos. Health seems to be a big driver across the board. That really could entice consumers to commit to veganism or vegetarianism.” This is to say nothing of longstanding traditions like that of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, a Christian denomination known for having espoused vegetarianism and a particular bias against red meats on a Biblical basis for well over a century-and-a-half. The Adventist Health Message has popularized in recent decades as more and more people embrace it for its unique insights into weight loss via nut-and-seed diets and Biblical health principles with which scientists have only recently caught up, determining them to be principles that correlate with longevity of life, a measurable mitigation of cancer risks and a reducer of heart disease susceptibility. The scientific community has followed, in fact, the progress of the Adventist Health Study and Adventist Health Study II as of late, finding those who adhered to the rudimentary facets of the Adventist Health Message to live an average of eight years longer than those who do not in the US. It represents, perhaps, the closest that any trend has brought the Millennial demographic to any church or religious group.     The US Department of Agriculture already published a stat saying that over 41 million of the 327 million people living in the US will go hungry some time or another in the course of the next year. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, though, says switching to a plant-based diet for everyone in America would easily feed everyone in the country, too, along with 350 million people across other countries. That report looked directly at the prospect of American farmland that’s presently purposed with raising chickens, pigs, and cattle. The study found that this farmland, if used for plant cultivation instead of animal slaughter, would double the number of people it would feed. “Concurrently replacing all animal-based items in the US diet with plant-based alternatives will add enough food to feed, in full, 350 million additional people — well above the expected benefits of eliminating all supply chain food waste,” according to the published study. Ron Milo, a Weizmann Institute of Science systems biology and sustainability researcher based in Israel was the lead author of the study. He and his research team studied all manner of eating habits and agricultural production unique to the US between 2000 and 2010 in order to figure out if this plant-based approach would help the country at all. They were surprised by the staggering results. For the results to be at all realistic, though, the research team had to account for everyone nationwide still getting all the protein, calories, fiber, minerals and vitamins they need without any increases to cholesterol or fat. They successfully found that replacing all the country’s meat, eggs, and dairy products with a “nutritionally equivalent combination of potatoes, peanuts, soybeans and other plants, the total amount of food available to be eaten would increase by 120 percent.” This would make it possible for millions more Americans to be fed but could also put a serious dent in food loss rates, which farmers and scientists presently estimate to be between 30 and 40 percent of what agribusiness produces. Food waste, mind you, is “widely recognized as undermining food security and environmental sustainability,” the study says. The hindrances to something like that coming to fruition are, of course, innumerable, but one ideological roadblock, in particular, is that of what Reason’s blog writer, Robby Soave, calls a conservative social science paper currently getting around in media. It’s entitled, “Meatless meals and masculinity: How veg* men explain their plant-based diets.” It somewhat brazenly suggests that veganism is a feminine trait that women embrace for emotional reasons and that men have co-opted for rational reasons, and it, thereby, asserts that men are unconsciously furthering patriarchy by becoming vegan. The article summary in and of itself, Soave says, deserves to be derided for its gendered assumptions: “This article analyzes qualitative interviews conducted with twenty vegan and vegetarian men in a semi-urban area of the southeastern United States to better understand how they conceptualize and explain their food consumption identities in relation to their broader identity practices. I find their performances of masculinity often defy the conventional feminization of meatless diets, while also upholding gendered binaries of emotion/rationality and current tropes of white, middle-class masculinity.” The author of the study, North Carolina State University’s Mari Kate Mycek, uses what qualifies as, at best by any scientific standard, a small sample size in the first place to assert several generalities about vegan men. Soave proceeds in his own article to lambast the study, but the bigger picture is that this is the kind of thing that’s being discussed already in media, including this very article itself. The mere discussion could serve as a hindrance to any attempt that the US might make toward plant-based agriculture and veganism. It’s often the ideological backlash, in fact, that forestalls a movement. Cases in point would be the anti-vaxxer movement, the belief that global warming isn’t real, the notion that Christianity should inform lessons on biological evolution in school, the so-called Blue Lives Matter campaign, and a myriad of other ideologies in the US that hamper fact-based progress on critical fronts. Vaccines don’t cause autism and do immunize people. Man-made climate change is a meteorologically veritable phenomenon that does threaten to put the cap on the ongoing sixth mass extinction. Science classrooms should teach science, and Bible classes should inform them separately. The Black Lives Matter campaign was never a platform that suggested the lives of police were or should be undervalued, but police actions have suggested that Black life is undervalued. It’s most likely that this is all it will take to derail any legitimate attempts to mount a concerted effort to “veganize” the US; nevertheless, with Millennials embracing vegan and vegetarian diets at the rate they are, research shows that the ends are worth trying. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Cedric Dent 기자]

PLANE INFECTION PROBABILITY AND THE STIFF UPPER LIP

  Research shows that it might be a great rule of thumb to look for any reason to go to the doctor after any flight you take. If you find yourself on plane, you may feel fine, and that could continue after you get off the plane; however, if you start to feel anything untoward for any reason in the aftermath of a trip that involved flying, you shouldn’t waste time getting checked out, yet in the UK., it’s entirely probable that many people would. This is based on two studies conducted independently of one another but whose findings are bizarrely supplementary in the context of how British culture might cause a person to discount significant symptoms too long after contracting something on a plane. The first reason why the odds of an oversight occurring are pretty good is a reason that applies to far more than just the UK. It’s actually quite universal. US researchers published last Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that contagious people on airplanes are particularly likely to give what they have to those next to them or those in front of them. It marks the first study to scientifically take stock of contraction probability on the basis of a contagious passenger’s proximity to others around him or her. The study involved 10 separate, transcontinental flights, and the research team paid very close attention to passenger movements to make sound conjectures about respiratory infection probability for influenza or severe acute respiratory syndrome, for example. These are both disseminated via microscopic droplets on surfaces and in the air. “Passengers seated within one row and within two seats laterally of the infected passenger had an 80 percent or greater probability of becoming infected” by such things according to the published paper. “For all other passengers, the probability of infection was less than three percent.” That’s a pretty significant drop, and it suggests fairly well-defined radius for high infection probability. It applies, of course, specifically to the plane cabin environment in which air is especially stagnant and where people are especially restricted in their movements. The scientists caution in the study that infectious crew members could infect 4.6 passengers per flight on average. “Thus, it is imperative that flight attendants not fly when they are ill,” according to the study. These US scientists were on a collaborative project between the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. These issues, though, might compound for Britons who have already weathered the odds and ended up catching something whether they realize it or not. The other study was a UK study commissioned in advance of the World Hearing Day, which was recently held at the beginning of the month. The study involved a survey of some 2,000 adults found to be statistically quite likely to ignore symptoms like hearing problems or back pain for several months if not years before seeing a professional about these things. More than one in 20 survey respondents conceded that they waited a year or more before seeking professional help for troubling symptoms. Around 75 percent of Britons presently endure some health concern they won’t deal with, and a backache is the most common among them according to the study.     “It’s worrying to not only see how long people are leaving things before they seek help from a professional, but also that conditions such as hearing loss are on this list,” according to Dr. Hilary Jones, general practitioner and broadcaster. “This symptom now has strong links to other serious health conditions such as dementia, depression, heart health, and diabetes. It’s important to get anything which is causing you concern checked out at the earliest opportunity.” Studies coming out today show hearing loss correlating with depression, diabetes, dementia, and heart health. The new study says 57 percent of Britons don’t know whereas two in five admit to never having their hearing tested in lieu of fearing a legitimate problem. The point gleaned from all this, though, is that there’s a particularly measurable tendency among Britons to ignore important symptoms. If someone was to actually contract SARS on a plane, it would, of course, be a health imperative not just for them but for everyone anywhere near their destination that they get checked out as soon as possible, yet there are several symptoms that could manifest first that wouldn’t necessarily be enough to move that individual to a doctor according to statistics. SARS initially feels like the flu, and someone who won’t see a doctor for a prolonged backache or hearing loss of all things might not be so inclined to see a doctor about sniffles, a scratchy throat or a fever either. One might endure all these things and even believe they have a cold, simply attempting to weather the storm with a stiff upper lip. What’s worse, they might even try to go to work. If you only think you have a cold, you’re more likely to take the risk and go to work if it’s a bad time to miss days, and the argument can be made that people always feel like it’s a bad time to miss days. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Cedric Dent 기자]

LAX REGULATION OF OPIOIDS MAKES AMERICANS CONSUME ONE PAINKILLER TOO MANY

  Americans consume so many opioids not because they suffer more pain than people in other countries.  It has more to do with the lack of regulation in the US compared to Italy and France and other developed nations. The Washington Post noted that the US has an unusually friendly environment for manufacturers to market opioids aggressively and to donate generously to political causes and regulatory bodies. Those features of American exceptionalism, and not the exceptional physical pain, sparked the worst opioid epidemic in history. Daily doses of opioids Data from the UN for 2012-2014 show that standard daily doses of opioids consumer per capita are roughly comparable in Italy with 6,246 and France with 8,706. However, in the US, the figure reaches a staggering 50,142. It said that despite suffering chronic pain at a similar rate as the Italians and the French, Americans consume six to eight times as many opioid painkillers. Finding the right treatment plan can be challenging to find all natural pain relief that really works. Unfortunately, many medications have side effects and can end up only treating the painful symptoms but can do so at the expense of experiencing significant side effects. Reliawire noted that the brain has a mechanism to suppress chronic pain when an animal is hungry. At this time, the animal has a mechanism to go look for food, which the responses to acute pain, a study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania neuroscientists indicate. The researchers pinpointed a tiny population of 300 brain cells responsible for the ability to prioritize hunger over chronic pain. It is a group of neurons that may offer targets for novel pain therapies. Importance of pain Pain is important because, without it, a person may let a hand linger over a hot stove. However, longer lasting pain, such as the inflammatory pain that can arise after an injury, can be debilitating and expensive and can prevent the patient from completing important tasks. In natural settings, the lethargy caused by such pain could even hinder survival. The lab of J. Nicholas Betley, an assistant professor of biology in Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences, focused on studying hunger, in particular, how hunger can alter perception. He was curious about how hunger may interact with the sensation of pain, so the researchers observed how mice that had not eaten for 24 hours responded to either acute pain or longer-term inflammatory pain which is thought to involve sensitization of neural circuits in the brain. The researchers discovered that the hungry mice still responded to sources of acute pain but seemed less responsive to inflammatory pain compared to well-fed mice. The behavior was similar to that of mice that had been given an anti-inflammatory painkiller. They found out that in a conditioning experiment, the hungry rodents did not avoid a place where they have been exposed to inflammatory pain, while the mice that were not hungry avoided the place. The results of the experiment left the question on what part of the brain was processing this intersection between hunger and pain. To find the answer, the researcher experimentally turned on a group of neurons known to be activated by hunger, agouti-related protein neurons, and they found that chronic pain responses subsided, while acute pain responses stayed intact.     Optogenetics use The researchers used optogenetics to find that stimulation of only a few hundred AgRP neurons that project to the parabrachial nucleus significantly suppressed inflammatory pain. More experiments identified the neurotransmitter, a molecule called Neuropeptide Y as responsible for selectively blocking inflammatory pain responses. The blocking receptors for NPY reversed the effects of hunger, and pain returned. The researchers said that if their findings can hold up to humans, the neural circuit offers a target for ameliorating the chronic pain which can linger after injuries. It is a type of pain that is currently often addressed by opioid medications, the drug that also inhibits acute pain. Eugene Daily News noted studies which showed that 25.3 million Americans suffer from chronic pain and almost 70 percent of Americans are prescribed at least one prescription drug such as painkillers. The website noted that it can also be challenging to find all-natural pain relief that truly works. There are times when patients have a difficult time selecting something natural over prescription pills; however, unfortunately, many medications have side effects and can end up harming their bodies in the long run. It said that natural pain relievers are natural substances that help ease the pain, and these are found in many foods and herbs. These include turmeric, ginger, and sage. These are often added to ointments to be used topically. Some are administered orally, through capsules or oils. The list includes cannabis, capsaicin, turmeric, menthol, ginger, Valerian root, Cat’s Claw, Boswellia, Kava Kava, St. John’s Wort, Rosemary, and Lavender. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Vittorio Hernandez 기자]

APA SAYS MORE THAN HALF OF PREGNANT WOMEN SUFFER FROM MORNING SICKNESS

The Duchess of Cambridge, Princess Kate went through an exhausting early pregnancy for her royal children, Princess Charlotte and Prince George. Her bouts with morning sickness are not new to more than 50 percent of pregnant women today who also suffer from it. The American Pregnancy Association explained. Even pregnant women who watched their diet from organic to non-GMO also went through this miserable phase. While those who did not even pay attention to what they eat did not languish in nausea, loss of appetite, and vomiting coupled with countless bathroom visits. Situations varied from one pregnant woman to another. APA said that various factors are being incriminated for this predicament from rising hormone levels to slow food digestion and the mothers’ innate ability to protect the baby from dangerous toxins. According to Jose De La Mota, a board-certified OBGYN, Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, 90 percent of pregnant women suffer from nausea. And that morning sickness is considered a normal part of pregnancy. However, about 3 percent of the strata do suffer from a severe form of morning sickness, the formal name of which is hyperemesis gravidarum or HG. Scientists are puzzled over this mystery. How this particular condition affects certain pregnant women while others are not is not known. At the Onset of Pregnancy Dramatic hormonal changes happen during the first few weeks of a woman’s pregnancy. The first obvious sign of pregnancy is morning sickness. This is the nausea and vomiting experienced by some in the morning and at other times of the day by other pregnant women. Morning sickness appears from the first up to the third month of pregnancy. As the hormones stabilize, this condition becomes less frequent. The intensity and duration of the nausea differ from one pregnant woman to another. According to Dr. De La Mota, symptoms of morning sickness can start between four and six weeks of pregnancy, peak at about nine weeks, and will usually resolve during the first trimester. However, some patients may experience symptoms until the third trimester, and close to 5 percent of women will have them until delivery. At the same time, many pregnant women would experience disgust over some food or dishes, or a particular scent. A Cornell University  study actually explained this aversion as a protective instinct of the mother to protect the fetus. Food cravings are normal too. Pregnant women who go through the condition are advised to eat small meals several times all throughout the day. Fatty and deep-fried food should be avoided and replaced by oatmeal, yogurt, fruits, and nuts. In the morning, pregnant women are also advised to manage nausea upon waking up. A piece of saltine cracker can be placed beside the bed and eaten as soon as the expectant mother awakens to soothe the tummy. Sometimes, when vomiting is too overpowering, it is also recommended to drink ginger ale, soda water, peppermint or tea blends to calm the stomach. Throughout the day, it is important to consume fluids as often as possible to replace fluids due to vomiting every morning. The Opposing View Researchers from University of California, Los Angeles and University of Southern California, in partnership with 23andMe, discovered the genes responsible for extreme nausea and vomiting of pregnant women or hyperemesis gravidarum during early pregnancy. This condition that causes distress to 3 percent of pregnant women is also accountable for weight loss and electrolyte disruption.  Some pregnant women suffer from the mild condition and are advised on dietary adjustments, antacids, and rest. But those with a severe condition necessitate IV fluids or feeding tubes to replenish those lost from the body. Unfortunately, the current medications to treat HG are inadequate and could escalate to serious health consequences for the mother and the unborn baby. On the whole, HG remains the second topmost reason for hospitalization of pregnant mothers today. The study published in the journal Nature Communications identified the genes known as GDF15 and IGFBP7. These two genes are also crucial in early pregnancy, appetite regulation and the development of the placenta. "It has long been assumed that the pregnancy hormones, human chorionic gonadotropin or estrogen, were the likely culprits of extreme nausea and vomiting, but our study found no evidence to support this," said Marlena Fejzo, the study's first author and an associate researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA. She further explained that these two genes are also linked to cachexia, a general physical wasting and malnutrition usually associated with chronic disease. Cachexia symptoms resemble that of  HG. It is also responsible for 20 percent of deaths among cancer patients. In fact, Fejzo herself suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum which resulted in a lost pregnancy in 1999.     Not Hereditary Research done in the past showed that hyperemesis gravidarum is hereditary and gave the impression that genetics is the culprit, that this condition runs in the family. However, the research gleaned a different conclusion. The research team compared the DNA variation of non-HG pregnant women with HG-affected pregnant women. The research discovered that DNA variations around the genes, GDF15 and IGFBP7, were connected to hyperemesis gravidarum. These findings were confirmed and revalidated in an independent study of women with hyperemesis gravidarum. The researchers evaluated the DNA of 1,306 women of European ancestry who indicated in an online survey that they underwent IV therapy for nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. The data was compared against 15,756  women participants who did not suffer from the condition while pregnant. Results from this group showed a direct correlation between severe morning sickness and the genes GDF15 and IGFBP7. Researchers also looked into the symptom data of 50,000 female customers who consented to participate in the research. Though the results are yet to be picked up by the pharmaceutical industry, "It is my hope that one day a medication that affects this pathway will be used to successfully treat and possibly cure hyperemesis gravidarum," Fejzo stressed. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Kay Yeban 기자]

WELL-DONE STEAK RAISES POSSIBILITY OF HIGHER BLOOD PRESSURE

  A study of more than 100,000 American adults found that the odds of high blood pressure were a bit higher among people who like their meat grilled, broiled or roasted. They were 15 percent more likely to develop hypertension over 12 to 15 years. In contrast, those who favored more temperate cooking methods did not develop high blood pressure. But the researchers said that the finding does not add to evidence that suggests for people to limit the amount of meat in their diet, but they should also pay attention to how the meat is cooked. Hypertension prevention Gang Liu, the lead researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said that their results imply the reduction of the amount of meat – particularly red meat – and avoiding the use of open flame or high-temperature cooking methods which could potentially aid in high blood pressure prevention, UPI reported. Other than red meat, the study included eating of grilled chicken or fish regularly, Today reported. Linda Van Horn, the spokesperson of the American Heart Association, said that research suggested that cooking to the point of charring is the main issue. She said the process produces chemicals that are not normally present in the body. The chemicals include heterocyclic aromatic amines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Liu said that lab studies suggest that these chemicals can trigger inflammation within the body which can contribute to high blood pressure and other health problems. Other studies also say that people who eat a lot of well-done meat tend to face higher risks of certain cancers, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Liu noted that the study is the first to look for a connection to high blood pressure which can lead to stroke. Preliminary findings Liu was slated to present the findings of the study on Wednesday at a heart association meeting in New Orleans. But studies presented at the gathering are considered generally preliminary until the report is published in a peer-reviewed journal. The researchers based their findings on three long-term health studies of nearly 104.000 US health professionals who were all meat lovers and were free of high blood pressure and heart diseases at the outset. At that time, they gave detailed information about their diets and lifestyle habits. However, over the next 12 to 16 years, over 37,000 study participants developed hypertension. Liu said that it turned out that the risk was higher among the participants who liked high-temperature cooking or well-done meat. The researchers followed 32,926 women from the Nurses Health Study, 53,852 women from the Nurses’ Health Study II, and 17,104 men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. At the start of the study, none of the participants had high blood pressure, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Liu explained that the participants who grilled, broiled, or roasted their meat more than 15 times a month had a 17 percent greater risk of hypertension versus the participants who used those cooking methods fewer than four times a month. The researchers found it similar when they compared fans of well-done meat with people who usually cook their meat rare. They acknowledged that there could be other differences between people who like well-done meat and those who prefer it rare.     Other factors too The team accounted for many factors, including overall diet, smoking, exercise habits, and body weight. Other than grilling, Liu said pan-frying and boiling at moderate temperatures and durations seem like potential healthier choices. Van Horn agreed with Liu that it is a prudent move to avoid charred meat. But she also stressed that overall diet and lifestyle habits are critical to having healthy blood pressure numbers. She cited other recommendations to have lower blood pressure like the reduction of sodium intake, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, maintaining a healthy weight, and getting regular exercise. The researchers said that in eating at least two servings of red meat, chicken or fish, their risk of developing high blood pressure was 17 percent higher than people who used high-temperature cooking methods less than four times a month. Those people who preferred their meat well done had a 15 percent higher risk of developing hypertension compared to people who preferred rarer meat. Liu said that the chemical produced by cooking meats at high temperatures induce oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance in animal studies. These pathways may also lead to an elevated risk of developing hypertension. She said that oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance affect the inner linings of blood vessels and are associated with the development of atherosclerosis which is the disease process that underlies heart ailments and causes the arteries to be narrow, Medical Xpress reported. Liu said that their findings suggest that not eating food cooked well done and food cooked using open flame or high-temperature cooking methods, including grilling, barbecuing, and broiling may help reduce the risk of high blood pressure. [researchpaper 리서치페이퍼=Vittorio Hernandez 기자]