The Race of Snot
Every year this happens. I reckon it's statistically more likely at Christmas. Here's how it is:
- You're walking around in the cold.
- You head into a shop, knowing it won't take long as you're after a particular item.
- You queue, unaware that the shop's air conditioning is slowly melting tiny mucus icicles - mucicles - and get to the till at precisely the same moment as the first ticklings of incoming snot.
- You're handing over books, typing in pins, confirming that you would indeed like the receipt in the bag, not being the kind of person who hands over Christmas presents still in the bag, all the while judging whether you'll need to dive for a tissue and annoy everyone in the queue whilst disgusting the pretty assistant who could very possibly be the future mother of your children1 if only you don't turn into Colonel Boge of Bogington Vasey and flood the shop.
- The Race of Snot is generally won or lost by how long the credit card takes to verify. Thankfully most shops are in full-on assembly-line mode at this time of year, so it's efficient as hell and I personally am generally victorious.
This is worse atm, as I have a cold. Not fair. I did the whole cold thing last month - it was meant to be out of the way! I actually feel fine, but sound terrible and leak a lot, so appear remarkably unconvincing when trying to talk people into spending time with me. Have a big Christmas party tomorrow; hoping I'll be a little better in the morning, as infecting all my friends four days before Christmas might not go down well.
- obviously I am not thinking this, I am generalizing in a scientific manner [↩]
Kids should always avoid infection, but embrace the dirt
You know how it's a good idea to expose children to colds, measles etc. as it makes them immune in later life? Turns out, not true. In fact, opposite:
In 1989, an epidemiologist in Britain, David Strachan, observed that babies born into households with lots of siblings were less likely than other babies to develop allergies and asthma. The same proved true of babies who spent significant time in day care. Dr. Strachan hypothesized that the protection came from experiencing an abundance of childhood illnesses.
Dr. Strachan’s original hygiene hypothesis got a lot of press, not only in the news media but in serious medical journals. Less publicized was the decade-long string of follow-up studies that disproved a link between illnesses and protection from inflammatory disorders like allergies and asthma. If anything, studies showed, early illness made matters worse.
Moreover, studies now show that the more infections a person has during childhood, the greater his or her chance of premature death from scourges of old age like heart disease and cancer. The link appears to be chronic inflammation, a kind of lingering collateral damage from the body’s disease-fighting response. [my emphasis]
But what about the original observation? Well, children raised around many other children are indeed less likely to develop allergies and asthma, but not for the reasons thought:
But the link isn’t disease-causing germs. It’s early and ample exposure to harmless bacteria — especially the kinds encountered living close to the land and around livestock and other young children. In other words, dirt, dung and diapers. Just as disease-causing microbes clearly bring on inflammation, harmless microorganisms appear to exert a calming effect on the immune system.
Got it. Don't go nuts about hygiene, let kids play in the dirt and vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.
More detail in the NYT article, which also points out that colds are not 'natural' and part of life as they're only 5000 years old - nothing in evolutionary terms.
My new rule: never believe anything health-related unless it's stated, directly, by a trained professional, and even then it's not a bad idea to check it out with reputable sources online. And keep up with latest research.
Symptoms you should never ignore
This is all over the net, but it can't hurt to spread it some more. The following symptoms should always prompt medical attention:
- If you have unexplained weight loss and/or loss of appetite, you may have a serious underlying medical illness.
- Slurred speech, paralysis, weakness, tingling, burning pains, numbness, and confusion are signs of a stroke, and you should get to an appropriate emergency center immediately. Early treatment may prevent permanent damage to the brain or even save your life.
- Black, tarry stools may indicate a hemorrhage from an ulcer of the stomach or the intestine. It is important to stop the bleeding and to rule out cancer as a cause.
- A headache accompanied by a stiff neck and fever is an indicator of a serious infection called meningitis.
- A sudden, agonizing headache, more severe than any you have felt before, could mean you are bleeding in the brain. Go to an emergency room immediately.
- For women: Vaginal bleeding after menopause is a warning sign of possible cancer.
- For men: A lump in your testicle with or without a small lump in the groin could be serious. Testicular cancer is more commonly found in testicles that did not naturally descend from the abdomen to the scrotum.
My only query is some kind of timescale on the appetite - sometimes I just don't feel hungry, how long should that go on before I start to worry?
Via Lifehacker Health-Hack, via WebMD.
Hello!
Hey, thanks for coming! I'm Andrew, and this is where my headthinks come to breed. They often meander around humanism and photography, but they're flighty and you can't trust them, so anything is possible.
Do feel free to email me - I get lonely:
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