I always think of the movie Never Say Never Again when I hear the term "free radical." It's after M has decided to send Bond off to the health spa, and Bond tells Miss Moneypenny his new mission is to "eliminate all free radicals." She's very concerned and impressed when she says "Do be careful."
The Food section of yesterday's Post has a great non-technical explaination of what free radicals and antioxidants are. For example:
Electrons, not unlike humans, strongly prefer to snuggle together in pairs. So the unpaired electron in a free radical makes the molecule very needy and unstable. At the slightest opportunity, it will snatch an electron from one of the pairs in a nearby molecule, like a predatory bachelor breaking up a marriage.
You know how I frequently go off on the difference between health news as presented in the popular press and the actual scientific presentation?
Here's a quick example:
Housework cuts cancer risk from the Washington Times.
Do housework and reduce your chances of getting endometrial cancer from Medical News Today.
Exercise Improves Cancer Survival, Reduces Cancer Risk, Scientists Say...the actual press release from the American Association for Cancer Research's annual meeting.
I took a shower before coming to work this morning, of course. (I'm at work. We don't get federal holidays.) I was feeling all squeeky clean til I caught this while skimming Nature's news page: Biohazard lurks in bathrooms.
Yes, this is just what I wanted to read:
Each time you take a shower you are engulfed by an aerosol of bacteria, Pace told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle. In most cases, that will not be dangerous. But if you have an unprotected cut, or your immune system is suppressed, it could be a different story.The bacteria probably feed on volatile organic chemicals shed from human bodies, says Pace, rather than on soap. "When you cough, belch or fart, you're putting a lot of organic chemistry in there," he says.
Now as far as I know my immune system is functioning just fine, and I don't stand there in the shower belching and farting, thank you very much. But still...I could have made it through the day without the thought that I'd showered in a bacteria aerosal.
This is funny or sad, depending on your point of view...
...in 2001, only about 50 percent of NSF survey respondents knew that the earliest humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs, that it takes Earth one year to go around the Sun, that electrons are smaller than atoms, and that antibiotics do not kill viruses.
(From Science and Technology: Public Attitudes and Public Understanding, Science and Engineering Indicators–2002, Division of Science Resources Statistics, National Science Foundation.)
The NIH has a museum of medical research (specifically the DeWitt Stetten, Jr., Museum of Medical Research). I've seen bits of the collection when I've gone to the NIH campus for work, something I don't do too much anymore. And while theoretically anyone can go to NIH, it is a royal pain to get into a federal facility.
The web exhibits the museum puts up on the web are pretty cool, too, though, and there's no need to go through security. The latest, a thin blue line, covers the history (scientific and cultural) of the at-home pregnancy test kit.
(There's more, if pregnancy test kits don't interest you...the genome and anatomical art, pain and poppies.)
Google's News feature is cool. Not only did I get the cannibal scoop, but I like getting the headlines-by-topic. Here's what I found in Health this morning:
Moderate Alcohol Consumption Linked To Brain Shrinkage
Red Wine May Protect Against Breast Cancer
Shrunken brain, breast cancer. What to do, what to do...
Okay, lest anyone take me seriously here, I do not base my eating and drink habits on the health story of the day, especially on the popular-press-reporting of the health story of the day. I often follow up by reading the actual medical journal articles (since I have the luxury of a medical library here at work), but even then no one study has ever made me do or not do something.
I just happened to be amused by the juxtaposition of those two headlines.
Incidentally, there is a really good article, How to Understand and Interpret Food and Health-Related Scientific Studies, on the International Food Information Council Foundation web page.
I've just discovered IFIC. It looks to be industry-supported, with "partners" in academia, government, and medical associations. They say they don't "lobby for legislative or regulatory activities."
Maybe this comes from growing up so close to the Beltway, but I assume everybody is lobbying for something somehow. Not that I have a problem with that, I just like to know whose message I'm reading. As I said, I was impressed by the article on how to read studies, and I'll look at IFIC's stuff in more depth soon...that might be a good project for a snowy Saturday morning, in fact.
If I don't shrink my brain too much tonight.
UPDATE: I've read through several of the press releases and educational materials...the spin is definitely agribusiness and big food production. Not that that negates the information (some of which I found to be a bit on the obvious side, but I do read a lot of health- and nutrition-related information)...but like I said, you gotta know who's paid the bills, since there is no Center for Thoughtful and Reasonable Analysis of All Available Data with Appropriate Advisories on the Limitations of Said Data for Informed and Responsible Individuals Who Are Willing to Make Decisions and Accept the Consequences. And heck, even if there was, there'd be spin.
There's an intriguing article in the month's Annals of Internal Medicine about the effectiveness of leech treatment for arthritis of the knee.
Yep, leeches.
Hey, if it works..."In this randomized, controlled trial, patients with osteoarthritis of the knee who were treated with leech therapy experienced clinically significant improvements in self-perceptions of pain for a limited period. Moreover, a single application of leeches improved functional ability and joint stiffness for at least 3 months."
One thing the ancients didn't quite get with leeches is that it wasn't the blood-letting, it was the saliva that provided the benefit. Leech spit contains anticoagulants hirudin and hemetin as well as other chemicals, including anesthetics.
You don't lose that much blood, only 5 to 15 mL a leech. Of course if you do try this, for heaven's sake practice safe leeching: bacterial and viral infections can be transferred from an infected person. Don't share leeches!
If you don't have a handy leech-filled creek by your house, you can always go on line.
It's natural. It's been around since 1500 BC. What more can you want in a medical treatment?
The CPSC is recalling the book Candle and Soap Making For Dummies.
The reason is that "[t]he instructions in the book for making lye combine sodium hydroxide and water in an incorrect order. This could cause the mixture to bubble over, posing a burn hazard to consumers."
Uh, yeah.
Or it might, oh, say, errupt in your face and eat out your eyes!
(Don't believe me? See some gross pictures of chemical burns.)
At first I was chuckling about the fact that a "For Dummies" book would be recalled...it just seemed a bit, I dunno, ironic...but then I was thinking that a lot of people probably don't even remember the high school chemisty lesson about not adding water to acids, much less realize that the same holds for a strong base.
Once I get to thinking about it, my safety gene kicks in and I just think about some poor slob getting hurt. The "For Dummies" books I have all seem pretty good, so I imagine that they recommend wearing goggles and taking other appropriate cautions while working with the NaOH...unless the same fact-checker or editor or sloppy writer who messed up the sodium hydroxide into the water thing messed that up too.
This is why none of my hobbies involve chemicals*. Hell, I don't even like cleaning the tub.
*EDIT: I dashed this off quickly. I mean, of course, that none of my hobbies involve exposing myself to highly hazardous chemicals...