protozoa in your piehole

I read this in my local paper a few days ago: Study finds dangerous bacteria lurks in shower heads. Warns: Do not stand directly under shower spray when first turned on.

Wait. Do people really have to be instructed to stand away from the shower head when they turn on the jets? Isn't the blast of icy cold on warm body deterrent enough?

But to my point. As if we don't have enough to worry about with drug cartels across our borders, economic forecasts dependent on Asia, and nuclear threat in the Middle East, do we really need news outlets publishing one unreplicated study story after another that warn us of the dangers lurking right in our own homes? Cancer from barbeque, radiation from cell phones, hormone additives in our dairy, BPA in the baby bottles, pesticides on our produce, salmonella in the salad. Is there no safe harbor from unseen domestic dangers?

Yet, last I heard, people are living longer than ever. Nursing homes are crowded. No room at the Sunset Inn for grandma. How can this be?

And if is there a better example of toxicological irony, please share in the comments: After everyone but me traded in their BPA laced Nalgene bottles for SIGG containers, SIGG

revealed that their proprietary ‘water-based epoxy liner’ which coated the inside of every SIGG reusable bottle made before August 2008, contained trace amounts of BPA.

So given all of this fear driven news, I sincerely expect to see an article that reads,

Scientists Warn: Kissing is Dangerous

Research microbiologists report findings from a study indicating hundreds of millions of bacteria are found in human saliva. Six hundred different microbial species of bacteria are waiting to spring from that red and white cavity behind your lips.

Stand back, study warns. There's fungi on your face. Cooties on your kisser. Protozoa in your piehole.

What can we do to protect ourselves from this bacterial quagmire?

Dr. Hal I.Tosis of U of OCD recommends donning protective head gear:

hangover cures

Comparitive Childhood talked about McDonald's fast food today and got me thinking about my hangover eating preferences.

First and foremost, I've gotta have a Pepsi (Coke will do in a pinch but it isn't quite the same). I keep a 12-pack of Caffeine Free Pepsi in my pantry, available on a strictly "break open in case of hangover" basis.

Second in line, and later in the day: a burger and fries.

Back in my college days, weekend mornings were synonymous with hangovers. Genesee Keg party, anyone?

I shared a Victorian era house with a group of Irish Catholic girls who collected keg money on Friday night with all the solemnity of a Sunday morning collection plate. In those days, it wasn't unusual for me to stay up half the night with my buds, sometimes til the sun came up, until we floated the keg.

Something about keg beer and particularly nasty hangovers.

Which meant there was hell to pay if I was scheduled for the morning shift at my Kmart job (yes, that's right, that was me on the loudspeaker announcing Blue Light Specials in Ladies Lingerie). But make my shift I must, so I trotted off with a serious dog on my head.

Conveniently, on the way to work, there was a string of fast food restaurants. First stop McD's for their excellent fries and a Pepsi. Next stop Wendy's for a burger with mustard and pickles only. Ahh. Good as new. Or good enough to get me through the day.

These days I have moved away from keg beer (far, far away) and toward vodka that's been distilled four or five times. On another preventative front: B-complex, an ibuprofen, and LOTS of water before I go to bed. Works like a charm, when I remember to take it.

How about you? What are your hangover cures? Replies along the lines of, "I don't drink enough for hangovers" will be summarily deleted. (kidding, of course).

Here are a few (hopefully) helpful links:

-- Hangover-cure is a blog dedicated to the cause.

-- Ten Quick Hangover Cures offered up at Mental Floss, here.

-- Ten Healthy Hangover Cures, here. Before: Almonds; During: clear alcohol; After: no caffeine, sports drinks and lots of water.

-- Sciencebase says there is no such thing as a hangover cure, here. Boo hiss boo. Leave my placebo voodoo alone, please. These buzz kills say the only way to cure a hangover is to prevent one by drinking less. Well ok, if you say so.

A political aside (because there is always a political aside from where I'm sitting). These hangover hints will not help Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens, I'm not sorry to say. Today he was found guilty on all seven counts of corruption (read about it here). I'd call that suffering from 4o years of swigging pork barrel swill and swindling his constituents.

toe fugh

How many of you have bought a package of tofu with the grand scheme of finding the recipe that will turn you onto this health food staple? That you, too, will become a card carrying member of the tofu nation?

A recipe that will produce something appetizing like this, for example:

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Or this.

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Where was this delicious looking dish when I was recipe hunting?

Instead of mouth watering, healthful morsels created in your happy kitchen, you find, months later, a yellowing, fuzzy, brick of brain matter dieing in your fridge.
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Oh wait. That was a prepared meal.

This is the decaying glob of plant gelatin:


A new study suggests maybe it was our all knowing unconscious guiding us. It found that tofu in the diet is linked to dementia. Take (that) heed all you health food (nuts) lovers !

If you're like me, you won't care about the details of the research. When it comes to advising against foods like toefugh, headlines are all I care to read.

the lowdown on D

Lately I've been fascinated by recent findings associated with the health benefits of Vitamin D. Called the "sunshine vitamin," it needs sunlight to do its magic. Most of us know that D plays a role in bone health, "milk for strong bones." (Vitamin D is not easy to get in foods which is why milk is fortified with it.) But evidence has been steadily emerging to tell us that D helps keep our immune system functioning properly and may help prevent the growth of cancer cells, too.

Now that we're all convinced sunlight is the equivalent of the modern day antichrist when it comes to the skin cancer prevention, we may have swung the pendulum too far. Less sunshine, less risk of skin cancer, yes, but too little sunshine and we have a greater risk of developing other types of cancers: breast and colon, for example. Autoimmune disorders may result from too little sunshine as well, such as multiple sclerosis and diabetes.

Sunlight and Vitamin D may play a role in depression as well. Seasonal Affect Disorder, or SAD, is believed to occur when people get too little sunshine. It is especially prevalent in places like Alaska and Seattle. I believe my own depression was related to getting too little sun. I belong to a gym and for years got my primary workouts indoors. A few years ago, however, I went back to playing tennis (after long hiatus). My indoor gym workouts were replaced by sunshine supplemented workouts. Very quickly I found myself feeling much better: more energy, better moods, improved sleep patterns. I may not be getting the same quality workout, but I feel better and that quickly became more important to ME and my everyday functioning.

SAD experts recommend 15-30 minutes of exposure to sunlight daily as a natural "antidepressant." Take a morning walk, sit outside and read the paper or take your work break outside. Make it a part of your daily routine, for sunshine's sake. For a more detailed look at SAD, read here.

The Harvard School of Public Health's Nutrition Department publishes The Nutrition Source, a website talking about various health and nutrition topics. If you want to read more on Vitamin D, here is a good place to start. Their overview of guidelines and good stuff found in multi-vitamins can be read here.

And one more healthful offering: Oprah's experts, Drs. Oz and Roizen, put together an antiaging checklist which includes the recommendation to take 1000 units of D daily to keep us looking and feeling young. Dr. Oz was mentioned in a comment by Jeanne of knitresolution blogfame, sharing that he recommends splitting multi-vitamins and taking half in the morning and half in the evening to get maximum benefits.

supplements for suppleminds

I'm a fan of nutritional supplements. Each morning my bathroom vanity is populated by a colorful array of tablets and capsules ready to be gulped down with my morning glass of water. Breakfast first, as many vitamins and supplements don't work as well on an empty stomach. But which ones need to be taken on a full stomach and which ones work better on an empty stomach?

Figuring this out and which supplements to take for what problem often involves winding through a maze of internet sites. I want reputable, research based advice. I want to avoid unreliable claims from commercial sites, for example, that are trying to sell their product. I want to know what supplements have been researched and what the research says.

The University of Maryland Medical Center's Complementary and Alternative Medicine Index is a great resource that covers all the essential bases. Here you can browse specific supplements and herbs and find out how to take them, for what purpose, and at what recommended dose. Or you can start with a particular condition, such as Depression, and read about recommended nutritional strategies and alternative treatments (St John's Wort, for example). Supporting research references from peer reviewed journals are listed as well as potential complications and interactions with medications.

So what are some of my daily supplement choices? A multi-Vitamin for the broad spectrum approach. A B-complex for general life stress. Magnesium glycinate for the prevention of osteoporosis (my grandmother had it) and as a wind-down-to-sleep aid. Melatonin on nights when I have trouble falling asleep because my sleep cycle has been irregular (my preferred cure for "sunday night insommnia"). Fish oil for Omega-3 Fatty Acids because, as the UMM site tells me,

"Extensive research indicates that omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation and help prevent risk factors associated with chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and arthritis. These essential fatty acids are highly concentrated in the brain and appear to be particularly important for cognitive (brain memory and performance) and behavioral function. In fact, infants who do not get enough omega-3 fatty acids from their mothers during pregnancy are at risk for developing vision and nerve problems. Symptoms of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency include extreme tiredness (fatigue), poor memory, dry skin, heart problems, mood swings or depression, and poor circulation."

So what are your favorite nutritional supplements and why? Any preferred sites for researching alternative medicine?

fat rats

I keep hearing there's a study out there which suggests diet drinks make us fat. Since I'm so excited about crossing off yet another pleasure food from my ever shrinking list, I went looking for the study. It was conducted at Purdue University by two diet soda addicts, I presume: Susan Swithers and Terry Davidson. Rats were fed Dannon yogurt (my favorite brand!) that was sweetened with either sugar or saccharin. Swithers and Davidson concluded that rats who received artificial sweetner consumed more calories and gained more weight (and yes, body fat) than the rats who received sugar. Their study also found that the diet food rats showed "blunted thermic responses to sweet-tasting diets." So the dieting rats' metabolic processes under responded to the saccharin making them eat more of the real calories later. So there it is. Saccharin is not my friend. Body fat wins yet again. Argh! You can read it and weep for yourself, here.