Gray seals may be predators on Dutch beaches

 

The bodies kept washing ashore—dozens of mutilated harbor porpoises stranded on the Dutch beaches every year, their bloody remains discovered by screaming vacationers. Now, after 10 years of crime scene investigation–style work—complete with autopsies and DNA testing—biologists and veterinary pathologists have finally cracked the identity of the murderers: big-eyed, chubby-faced gray seals. The finding could lead conservationists to rethink gray seal rehabilitation, and it even raises the specter of a new “great white” in the North Sea.

When harbor porpoises with missing bellies first appeared on Dutch coastlines in 2006, local biologists thought someone was deliberately hurting the animals. But the numbers soon rose to dozens a year—impossible to attribute to a single person. So the scientists looked elsewhere: Perhaps it was ducted propellers that sucked the porpoises in? Or fishermen cutting up unintentionally trapped porpoises?

Then in 2012, a group of Belgian researchers noticed that some of the wounds on dead porpoises found on Belgium beaches bore the canine teeth marks of gray seals. “We thought, ‘Of course, how silly,’ ” says biologist Mardik Leopold of the Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands. “You think seals are nice, cuddly animals—they are not. They are predators.”

With a towering height of 2.5 meters and the weight of two linebackers, gray seals are the largest predators in the southern North Sea. Though they are known as fish hunters, an adult male seal could easily overpower a 30-kilogram juvenile harbor porpoise.

So the researchers examined photographs and autopsy results of more than 1000 stranded harbor porpoises collected from 2003 to 2013. The wounds further implicated gray seals. There was the torn blubber, the fatty nourishment that seals seek; the rows of canine teeth imprints on the tailstock, the thin part connecting the body and the tail; and the telltale scratch marks—four parallel lines left by seal claws grabbing onto the porpoises. Analysis indicates that close to a fifth of the stranded porpoises had a lethal encounter with gray seals—mostly naive juveniles who probably saw seals for the first time in their lives as they migrated north in the spring, Leopold says.

But finding the smoking gun proved to be a challenge. Short of analyzing the stomach contents of living seals, the only way to ascertain the identity of the predator was to find saliva DNA in the inflicted wounds: a seemingly impossible task, as seawater should quickly wash away any traces of DNA. Even human forensics rarely employs such analysis on drowned corpses, Leopold says. “Everyone thought we were crazy in even trying.”

Indeed, nothing turned up from the obvious tear wounds. But at the bottom of deep, narrow bite marks on three porpoise bodies—where the flesh veered back after the seals pulled out their teeth and formed sealed pockets—the biologists found the iron-clad DNA evidence, they report online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

That solves the “who” question, but it still doesn’t answer the “why”: What caused the gray seals to suddenly eye harbor porpoises for dinner in 2006? Humans may be to blame, the researchers suggest. As gas prices went up in recent years, Dutch fishermen switched from trolling to using cheaper set nets anchored to the seabed, which trapped harbor porpoises as by-catch. The team speculates that the gray seal, known to steal fish from the set nets, may have stumbled on a much larger, fattier “fish” and went on to actively hunt porpoises.

The situation poses a dilemma for conservationists, as both the gray seals and the harbor porpoises are protected species. The Netherlands currently operates three rehabilitation centers for seals: The marine mammals disappeared from the region in the Middle Ages due to excessive hunting and only reemerged in the 1980s. But conservationists may need to reconsider the strategy, says biologist Jan Haelters of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Ostend, who was not involved with the study. “In Africa, if you take care of all the lions and release them to the wild, it would affect the natural balance.” Still, he says, the study “gives us a very good framework for coordinated, coherent monitoring of harbor porpoises.”

The seal predation could have long-term impacts on the local porpoise population, Leopold says. Researchers studying bottlenose dolphin attacks on porpoises in Scotland have found that the porpoises adapt by becoming leaner, faster swimmers. But speed comes at a cost. Compared with larger marine mammals such as whales, porpoises have more surface area relative to their body volume, which means they need to feed every hour to compensate for heat loss through the skin. Without food, a porpoise would die of starvation after 3 days, whereas a whale can fast for a month. “They are between a rock and a hard place really,” Leopold says.

That seals would hunt down such large prey hints at a bigger problem, Leopold and Haelters warn. The Dutch shores are frequented by human bathers and surfers, raising the specter of a new “great white” terrorizing the North Sea beaches. “Statistically,” Haelters says, “an accident will happen.”

Chagas Disease

Chagas disease, caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, continues to make inroads in the United States and physicians are both unprepared to diagnose and under equipped to treat cases of the disease in their patients.
Chagas is a rare disease in the United States and has typically been associated with immigration from Central and South America, where the disease is endemic. The dynamics of the disease are changing, however, and strong evidence continues to emerge indicating that local infection is occurring among the American population, particularly in the southern states.

Research performed over the past years has consistently shown that the parasite is embedded in the ecology and landscape of the south: its vector, the blood-feeding triatomine insect known as the “kissing bug” for its proclivity to feed near the mouth, resides in a swath of states including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Studies of these same bugs show that they not only carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, but also that they are coming into uncomfortably close contact with humans, with genetic studies indicating bloody feasts of human origin. Most recently, a study this year found that many canines in shelters carry T. cruzi, serving as a reservoir that brings the disease into even closer contact with humans.

Stages of the triatomine insect or “kissing bug,” the vector of Chagas disease. Image: Thierry Heger

According to the latest research presented this month at the annual gathering of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, rates of Chagas infection among Americans are on the rise and are presenting a growing yet unappreciated public health threat to the United States.
Researchers at Baylor University presented the results of a study of the emergence of Chagas disease in Texas which demonstrate not only a surprisingly high incidence of the parasite in the state of Texas, but also showing elevated rates of associated heart disease in afflicted individuals. The researchers found that one in every 6,500 blood donors in Texas tested positive for the parasite, a finding that grossly undermines the CDC’s national estimate that one in every 300,000 people may be infected with Chagas in this country.

The Baylor team has monitored a group of 17 people who tested positive for Chagas after donating blood in order to track their clinical outcomes. Of those patients, over 40% went on to develop manifestations of severe Chagas disease, which included flabby, weakened hearts and abnormal heart rhythms such as arrhythmias. “We’re the first to actively follow up with positive blood donors to assess their cardiac outcomes and to determine where southeastern Texas donors may have been exposed to Chagas,” says Melissa Nolan Garcia, the epidemiologist who led the Baylor team. Their research finds that Chagas is a significant risk factor for life-threatening forms of cardiac disease and highlights the serious need for closer monitoring of transmission in Texas.

Many of the cases were diagnosed in people with no history of significant international travel to endemic areas, strongly suggesting that their infections are homegrown. Several individuals lived in rural areas or reported frequently engaging in outdoor activity, greatly increasing their exposure to triatomine bugs. The Baylor research suggests that those living in rural regions of Texas may be at the greatest risk of contracting Chagas, a disease of which the public is barely aware, if at all.

Though Chagas is making its presence known in this country, American physicians are unprepared to meet the challenges of the disease in their patients. Chagas is still considered an exotic, foreign disease and, as such, the parasite is rarely considered as a viable diagnosis in a patient presenting with heart disease of idiopathic, or unknown, origin.  This is especially true in those patients that present without the requisite risk factors like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes.  In short, a lack of awareness of Chagas among American physicians stymies diagnosis in those that are infected.

Triatomine insect occurrence by state. Image: CDC. Click for source.

Even if physicians were to suspect Chagas in their patients, they are hampered in their ability to effectively detect the parasite using available diagnostic assays – there are only three assays available; of these, only one has FDA approval, and all available assays have poor sensitivity in correctly classifying an individual with the disease.

To compound matters, there are no established systematic treatment plans in the United States for patients who eventually obtain a definitive diagnosis. Of the drugs available to treat infection, only two exist and they both must be ordered from the CDC. “A lack of infrastructure for diagnosis and a systemized treatment plan just do not exist for Chagas” says Dr. Jennifer Manne-Goehler, a clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She presented research to the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene showing “an enormous treatment gap” between those individuals that tested positive for Chagas after blood donation and those that receive treatment. Of the nearly 2,000 people that tested positive through the blood banking system from 2007 to 2013, only 422 doses of medication were administered by the CDC.

Dr. Manne-Goehler reports that many physicians devise their own treatment plans for lack of a systemic and approved way to approach the disease. Her group is calling for the formation of an expert panel to draft guidelines for Chagas treatment and to call for the developmentof more robust diagnostic tools. “There’s a lot of hand-waving in the community,” when it comes to how the public health community should tackle the emergence of Chagas in the United States, says Manne-Goehler, but with the formation of an expert panel her group hopes that headway can be made in constructing a structured response to the threat of Chagas disease in America.

What we know now is that Chagas is no longer an exotic affliction from abroad, affecting only immigrants and globetrotters. Recent research provesthat the disease is being acquired domestically and is slowly percolating into the American population from infected bugs within our borders. A lack of awareness of Chagas, subpar diagnostic tests, and insufficient standardized guidelines are hindering our ability to mount an effective response to the disease and to prevent the continued emergence of this parasite. Without these targeted initiatives, Chagas disease will continue to spread, knowing no borders.

Diabetes Diets Aren't All About Skipping Sugar, But Balancing Multiple Ingredients

American Diabetes Month is ongoing now through the end of November, folding into the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) primary objective to raise awareness and understanding of diabetes, its consequences, management, and prevention. Earlier this year, a Journal of the American Medical Association study found diabetes rates were actually leveling off. But in spite of this, diabetes remains a major public health concern.
This month’s theme is “America Gets Cooking to Stop Diabetes.” The ADA is aiming to engage and inspire people to live a more active and healthier lifestyle. More often than not, the healthier lifestyle aspect of it all includes foods and recipes labeled as “diabetes-friendly.” Yet, some diabetes-friendly recipes out there boast more than 11 grams of sugar (almost 3 teaspoons). Isn’t that a lot for someone who is (or trying to avoid being) diabetic?
“When it comes to looking at a [nutrition] label, I always recommend that the sugar to protein ratio be as close to 1:1,” nutritionist Rania Batayneh, author of best-selling book The One One One Diet, told Medical Daily. “The lower the carbohydrate count, the more minimal impact on blood sugar the food will have.”
However, Batayneh added, protein is really the stabilizer. High protein foods help a person curb their cravings and properly fill up in-between meals, which is especially helpful for those with pre- and type 2 diabetes. Fiber, on the other hand, slows the digestion of carbs, helping keep blood sugar steady.
The ADA has a great primer on target blood glucose here. Glucose, the main sugar found in blood, is produced when a person's body breaks food down into energy. Stable levels maintain the disease, and keeping track of levels is what indicates the success or failure of a treatment plan.

Modern Diabetes Management

Level Life categorize themselves as a modern diabetes management company focused on empowering people with the right tools to help manage their diabetes effectively. Last month, the company announced a new line of indulgent snacks, including Peanut Butter Cups, Peanut Turtle Bars, as well as a variety of protein bars, shakes, and performance gels. “We use real, high-quality ingredients that don’t give your stomach or blood sugar issues, and which are formulated to quickly deliver the results you need," a press release read.
The quick results are in the form of fast-acting glucose, which Batayneh explained raises blood sugar two times faster than juice — the most common resource for a person experiencing a low blood sugar event. Also, the fast-acting gels have no fat, a differentiator from other foods made with standard sugar. Each gel has 15 grams of pure glucose and the perfect amount of carbs to avoid over-treatment.
Pure glucose might be off-putting considering we know sugar to be dangerous, but in this case it's essential. It also points to the need to consider a product or recipe’s complete nutrition. Solely writing something off for high sugar content could be a mistake if it’s also high in stabilizing protein and healthy fats (for heart-health and satiety).

What’s Really Diabetes-Friendly

The formula Batayneh prescribes to her diabetic clients is one serving of protein, one serving of carbs, and one serving of fat at each meal and snack. Similar to the ADA, Batayneh says being “diabetes-friendly” is really about being educated.
“In my opinion, the key thing is for consumers to know what to look for. Being educated is the key to making changes,” she said. “Yes, defining a certain [food] as ‘diabetes-friendly’ is a helpful indicator that this can fit into your lifestyle. There really is no harm here. However, my recommendation is to eat clean, minimally processed foods balanced with protein, carbs, and fat. Relying too much on packaged goods is just not always or highly recommended.”
Level Life is capitalizing on healthy convenience for diabetics with a stubborn sweet tooth, but so are other companies like KIND Snacks. Batayneh personally loves their Nuts & Spices and Caramel Almond & Sea Salt bars as they only have 5 grams of sugar or less. Bonus: KIND only uses ingredients people can actually pronounce; nothing sketchy or artificial. A variety of their bars are also high in protein and fiber.
“Everybody has a sweet tooth, and there is nothing wrong with the occasional treat!” Batayneh said. “Sugar and fiber are the key things that people are drawn to, but protein is also really important [to consider] as it keeps the blood sugar stable.”
A diabetic’s blood sugar is their number one priority. It’s the greatest indicator of their health, and it prevents any further complications. We're simply saying balanced food choices, meaning a healthy variety of nutrient-dense foods, vegetables, lean meats, healthy fats, high fiber and protein, make it so even diabetes patients can have their cake and eat it, too.

Foods That Can Discolor Your Skin

Most are familiar with Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory who turned blue after chewing Willy’s unperfected three-course meal gum. Hate to break it to you, but there is no gum that can replace food (at least not yet, that is). However, skin color changes caused by food is an actual occurrence, albeit not very common. Here’s a quick run-through of the foods and beverages that could change your skin color if you’re not careful:

 

The Blue Man

Paul Karason is truly a remarkable character. The Oregon native began drinking colloidal silver, a product consisting of silver particles suspended in liquid, in an effort to treat his dermatitis, Today News reported. Although silver has antibacterial properties, the colloidal silver was banned by the FDA in the 1990s because of its ability to cause argyria, a condition where silver collects in the body and does not dissipate.
Unfortunately, it was too late for Karason and years of self-medicating with colloidal silver because his skin eventually turned blue. Karason died last September from issues non-related to his skin coloring, but still remains as one of the most widely known cases of argyria ever documented. Argyria (Greek for silver) is caused by chronic exposure to the element silver. The silver remains in an individual’s body, unable to leave and gives the patient a gray to gray-black staining on their skin and mucous membranes.

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

A 24-year-old Chinese man’s skin and eyes turned a lovely shade of green after contracting a parasitic infection from eating snails, Want China Times reported. Doctors at Guizhou Aerospace Hospital removed four common liver flukes, a type of parasitic flat worm, from the man’s body. It’s believed that the man’s daily diet of river snails was the root of his ailment.
Such infections are unfortunately quite common, and Want China reported that in the most extreme cases individuals have been found with close to a thousand parasites in their bodies. Those who eat plants from dirty water or who drink untreated water are at the highest risk for infection.

Mellow Yellow

When it comes to carrots, you literally are what you eat. Carotenemia is when a person has an excessive amount of carotenoids in their blood, most commonly caused by overconsumption of foods such as carrots, pumpkins, and even papaya. The most popular characteristic of this condition is a slight yellow tint to the patients’ skin.
Although the condition can be alarming at first, it is usually harmless and will go away with a simple dietary shift. On the other hand, if your yellow skin is caused by something other than food, it may be cause for concern. Jaundice is a condition caused when the liver cannot handle the blood cells as they break down. A substance called bilirubin builds up in the blood, and this can cause the skin and the whites of the eye to turn yellow. Unlike carotenemia, this condition is dangerous and requires medical attention.

Nice Golden Skin Tone

Finally, here's a food that will change your coloring for the better, not worse. A 2012 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that eating more fruits and vegetables can change skin tone, lending it a healthier glow within a matter of weeks, Medical News Today reported. The main researchers, Dr. David Perrett, and his team found that as little as two extra portions of fruit and vegetables a day for six weeks was enough to cause a detectable change in skin tone.
People who eat more fruits and vegetables have a "golden" skin tone that looks healthy and attractive. "Our latest research finds that even small improvements in diet produce visible benefits to skin color," explained lead researcher Dr. Ross Whitehead.

Surprising Things Your eyes Say About Your Health And Personality

Eyes can tell a lot about a person: what they’re thinking and feeling, of course, and whether they’re lying or loyal. This is perhaps why the adage “the eyes are the window to the soul” rings true. But though your eye color may seem rather superficial, it can say a lot about your health too, in ways you may not have been aware.
This is because a variety of genes go into deciding your eye color. There aren’t just two genes — one for blue eyes and one for darker eyes as many scientists previously thought — but rather, there are up to 12 to 13 gene variations that can decide color. These genes linked to eye color are often at play in your body in different ways, which is why eye color can be a determinant of other health aspects. “These genes do other things in the body,” Dr. Jari Louhelainen, a senior lecturer in biomolecular sciences at Liverpool John Moores University, told the Daily Mail. “One of them, NCX-4, which is linked to darker eyes, controls many proteins, of which one has recently been linked to pain.”
Our skin, hair, and eyes all get their color from a group of natural pigments called melanins. The amount of melanin in your iris defines whether you’re born with green, blue, or brown eyes. People who are born with a lot of melanin in the stroma of the iris tend to have brown eyes, while people with less melanin have green or hazel eyes, and finally, having no melanin typically leads to blue eyes. Eye color is unique for every individual (no one has the same exact color as anyone else) and it changes constantly, shifting shades over the period of a lifetime depending on your genes, diseases, and age. Below are some of the things your eye color can tell about you.

Your Ancestry

In 2008, scientists discovered that everyone who has blue eyes is genetically linked to the same common ancestor, a person who experienced a genetic mutation sometime between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. Before this mutation, every human had brown eyes. “A genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a ‘switch,’ which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes,” said Hans Eiberg, a lead researcher of the study at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Copenhagen, in a press release. In short, this “switch” limited the OCA2 gene from producing melanin, which led to blue color in eyes. So, if you’re blue-eyed, it’s likely that you may share a common ancestor with all the other blue-eyed people out there.

How We Handle Pain

Some scientists may argue that your eye color can tell you something about how your pain tolerance. One study published earlier this year found that out of 58 women, those with light-colored eyes seemed to experience less pain when giving birth compared to those with dark-colored eyes. Not only did women with light-colored eyes experience less physical pain, but they also reportedly had less anxiety, depression, and negative thoughts. “Human pain is correlated with multiple factors like gender, age, and hair color,” said Dr. Inna Belfar, a geneticist at the University of Pittsburgh who was a leading author of the study, at the American Pain Society's annual meeting in June. “Researchers have found that red hair is associated with resistance to anestheticsm and also to increased anxiety, and darker eye color has been reportedly found to correlate with increased physiologic reactivity and drug-induced pupil dilation."
Other studies have hinted that your eye color may indicate something about how well you can handle booze, too. In the past, researchers have found that people with light-colored eyes were more likely to abuse alcohol than people with dark-colored eyes because they could handle larger amounts of alcohol.

A Window To Your Soul — And Personality

A study conducted in Australia found that people with lighter eyes could be less “agreeable,” and far more competitive, than people with darker eyes. Agreeableness is a personality factor that is typically associated with empathy, friendliness, generosity, and compassion. After examining 336 participants, researchers from two different universities in Australia found that people with darker eyes were more “agreeable” than North Europeans with blue eyes, though the same association didn’t hold true for Europeans in general. This may sound like a stretch, and more research will be needed to solidify the claim, but researchers believe it may have something to do with our evolutionary roots — thousands of years ago, our Northern European ancestors found light-colored eyes more attractive and ideal for mating. Thus, it's possible that blue-eyed people ended up having more of a competitive edge, at least in Northern Europe.

Trust

Could it be possible that people with brown eyes are more trustworthy than people with blue eyes? In a recent study, researchers had participants rate facial photographs of 40 female and 40 male students on how trustworthy they appeared. Brown-eyed people were significantly more likely to be perceived as trustworthy than people with blue eyes. But the level of someone's perceived trustworthiness could also be influenced by facial shape; the researchers found that "although the brown-eyed faces were perceived as more trustworthy than the blue-eyed ones, it was not brown eye color per se that caused the stronger perception of trustworthiness but rather the facial features associated with brown eyes," they wrote in the abstract.

Disease, Aging, And Trauma

In addition, some studies have linked specific eye colors to diseases like diabetes, melanoma, and vitiligo. A 2012 study out of the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that people with blue eyes are less likely to have vitiligo, a skin condition that results in the loss of brown pigment from certain areas of the skin and leaves white blotches across some parts of the body. The study examined 3,000 Americans of non-Hispanic European ancestry who had vitiligo, and found that 43 percent had tan or brown eyes, while 27 percent had blue or grey eyes. This was quite different from the distribution of eye color among Americans of European descent, where 52 percent have blue or grey eyes, and only 27 percent have brown or tan eyes.
People's eyes may change hues depending on how bloodshot they are or what shirt they're wearing, but having each eye be a different color — a condition called heterochromia — can also be indicative of certain diseases, such as Horner's syndrome, Fuch's heterochromic iridocyclitis, or pigmentary glaucoma. In addition, people with late-stage diabetes might notice their eyes darkening.
Having lighter eyes may also mean that you're more sensitive to the sun's UV rays, since they contain less pigment to protect them. As a result, those with blue, grey, or green eyes may have an increased risk for melanoma of the uvea, which is the middle layer of the eye. "People with light iris color need to be more diligent in wearing UV-protected sunglasses," Dr. Ruth Williams, president-elect of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, told Everyday Health.
So, not only are your eyes your own personal window to the visuals and colors of the world, but they're a way for your body to tell a story of your own. As Karel Kleisner, an eye researcher from Charles University in Prague, says: "Eyes are not only for seeing, but also to be seen,"

Omega-3s Could Curb ADD In Kids

Food can be medicine if it’s used right and fed early into young, growing bodies. Despite the overwhelming conclusive findings that omega-3 fatty acids can benefit the body in a way no other supplements can, Americans can’t meet basic recommendations. A new study from the Journal of the American Heart Association found after 30 years, Americans still aren’t eating enough healthy, brain-empowering omega-3s, which may have the power to curb ADD in children.
“First, we tried to figure out why in the last two years there’s been a sharp decrease in the amount of omega-3s people are consuming in their diets,” Executive Director of the nonprofit Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) Adam Ismail. GOED has launched “Always A Good Idea” campaign to encourage and educate the public to regularly include omega-3s into their diets. “We figured out it just comes down to reminding the public and educating them. There is a massive public deficiency and as a result they’re missing out on a lot of important brain and heart health benefits.”
Omega-3s are not naturally produced by the body, which is why humans need to supplement either from diet or pill form to reach the 250 milligrams (mg) dosage recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), are the two crucial types of fats we’re depriving our bodies of every day. There are also alphalinolenic acid (ALA), which are plant-based and found in nuts and seeds, but don’t provide brain benefits and rather improve the cardiovascular system and reduce inflammation. The brain is 60 percent fat and requires more DHA than any other tissue in our body, which is why it has the power to improve brain function so effectively.
“There are only two types of omega-3s we know to have a positive effect on mood, brain function, and power, and that’s EPA and DHA. Registered dietitian and author Elizabeth Somer told Medical Daily. “We know the brain benefits extremely because it’s backed by solid and reliable research. Researchers have found it’s so important and beneficial to patients with depression, the American Psychiatric Association actually recommends that these omega-3s be included with any treatment for depression, even in extreme cases.”
A contributing factor to why Americans don’t prioritize meeting omega-3 recommendations is because the government hasn’t caught up with the research yet. “We’re basically the last developed country who doesn’t officially recommend a daily omega-3 intake,” Ismail said. “The government doesn’t have the right processes in place. Doctors don’t always understand all of the benefits omega-3 can provide. It could take 3 to 5 years for the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) to make it a recommendation on the nutrition labels.”
Since omega-3 fatty acid intake continues to remain at a steady low among Americans, we’re missing out on an incredible amount of health benefits. Each one of the brain’s 100 billion cells is encased in a fatty membrane, which sends important messages to other brain cells while also eliminating toxins, and absorbing oxygen and nutrients. Without omega-3 DHA, the brain seeks out a cheap replacement that gets the job done, but not as well as it could if it received the fats it’s designed to use. Fortified food has 32 mg per serving, while supplements can supply around 300 mg per pill. If you’d like to turn to a food source for a healthy dosage, white fish packs 235 mg per serving and fatty fish has 541 mg per serving.
“Our bodies can’t make it on its own so we have to get it from diet,” Somer said. “Fatty fishes, such as salmon receive their omega-3s from algae that concentrates in their tissues. They’re not high on a child’s priority list as far as eating is concerned, but DHA can still be slipped into their diets other ways. Horizon milk and Rinaldi pasta sauce have good levels, but a 200mg supplement is a safe recommendation for children.”
So far only the benefits of omega-3 DHA for children with attention deficit disorder have been highlighted in preliminary findings, but they make sense, according to Somer.  We’ll have to wait until further studies are released before it becomes an official recommendation similar to patients with depression. A study out of Purdue University found kids with low omega-3 essential fatty acid levels are more likely to be hyperactive, have learning disabilities, or exhibit behavioral problems.
There have been literally thousands of studies analyzing and confirming over and over again how beneficial omega-3s are to the body. One of the most important findings was published in the DHA (docasahexaenoic acid) Oxford Learning and Behavior (DOLAB) study. In a double-blind randomized study, children were given either an omega-3 DHA or a placebo, and within 16 weeks parents reported a significant improvement in their child’s reading ability and behavior. There is an urgent need for effective learning interventions for children, and if these findings can be replicated, omega-3 DHA may transform into a safe and natural treatment.
“Our bodies were built on an evolutionary assembly line where we hunted, gathered, or fishes for our foods,” Somer said. “But today we eat a diet of sawdust. We need to help our bodies grow and maintain, especially little bodies. By feeding our bodies the right building blocks, we’ll be able to function correctly. It’s the whole diet that’s important, though. You can’t just feed your kids McDonald’s and soda pop and then give them a DHA supplement and think they’ll be fine.”

Cells can fight viruses, even when stimulated to combat bacteria

Viruses pull a lot of dirty tricks to dodge our immune defenses and make us sick, but now scientists have come up with a trick of their own. Researchers have discovered that prompting cells to combat bacteria can also help them fight off viruses, even though the cells presumably wouldn’t have the right weapons to do so. “This would be analogous to, in a football game, arming the defense with baseball bats,” says Andrew Gewirtz, a mucosal immunologist at Georgia State University in Atlanta. The finding could solve a vaccine mystery, as well as lead to new ways to combat infectious diseases.
Your cells don’t respond the same way to bacteria and viruses. They switch on different genes and release different mixtures of chemical messengers and protective molecules. That’s why Gewirtz and his colleagues were taken aback by the results of an experiment they performed 6 years ago. The researchers were testing whether an injection of flagellin, a protein that’s part of the tails (or flagella) some bacteria use to propel themselves, activates the body’s antibacterial defenses. Their findings showed that it did, enabling mice to subsequently survive what should have been a lethal dose of harmful intestinal bacteria.
The surprise came when Gewirtz’s team infected the mice with rotavirus, a common cause of severe diarrhea in young children. Even though the virus doesn’t have a flagellum, injecting the rodents with flagellin in advance protected them against the pathogen.
In their new study, published online today in Science, Gewirtz and his colleagues figured out why. The researchers determined which two pathogen-sensing molecules enable cells to recognize the injected flagellin. When the cells detect flagellin, they spur other cells to emit interleukin-22 (IL-22) and interleukin-18 (IL-18), molecular signals that help orchestrate a defensive response. That presumably would help kill off bacterial invaders, but why does it work against viruses?
The answer may lie in the habits of the rotavirus, which invades cells lining the small intestine. IL-22 makes intestinal cells more resistant to viral invasion, whereas IL-18 thwarts the virus by spurring cells it has already infected to commit suicide. So when these molecules are activated, they fight bacteria as well as rotavirus. Indeed, injecting mice with IL-22 and IL-18 triggered the same antiviral effect as flagellin, the team found.
Gewirtz says that this mechanism might work because “it’s not what the virus is used to.” Rotavirus evolved to evade the body’s antiviral defenses, but it can’t counteract the response activated by flagellin or the combination of IL-22 and IL-18.
“It’s a very nicely documented story,” says Roger Glass, a rotavirologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. “They work through all possible explanations.” The crossover protection the authors observed is unexpected because the opposite often occurs, says immunologist and physician Robert Sabat of Charité University Medicine Berlin. For example, viral lung infections often leave patients more vulnerable to bacterial infections, not less.
Glass adds that the results might solve a mystery about the two new oral rotavirus vaccines introduced within the last decade. The vaccines contain weakened forms of the virus and are much more effective in developed countries than in developing countries, where rotavirus kills more than 400,000 children every year. Children in developing countries have probably been exposed to more flagella-carrying bacteria when they are vaccinated, he says. As a result, their cells might destroy the rotaviruses in the vaccine before they can develop immunity.
Researchers don’t expect the discovery to have much impact on global mortality from rotavirus infections. Treating children with IL-22 and IL-18 wouldn’t be feasible in developing countries where the virus is a major killer because of their limited medical facilities, Glass says. In developed countries, though, the combination might benefit children and adults whose immune systems are impaired because of cancer treatment or diseases like AIDS and who are vulnerable to rotavirus infections.
Sabat notes that researchers have already completed some clinical trials of IL-22 and IL-18 in cancer patients, and IL-18 did cause side effects such as fever, nausea, and difficulty breathing. However, he says, “a combination of IL-22 and low-dose IL-18 might be well tolerated.”
IL-22 and IL-18 might have other uses as well. “We think the system we’ve developed will be broadly applicable to other viral infections,” Gewirtz says. He and his colleagues are now testing whether the combination allows mice to resist a range of viruses, including norovirus, a gastrointestinal pathogen notorious for causing outbreaks on cruise ships

Worst Foods to Eat

There's no denying to the many bacon lovers that bacon is delicious. But it's not very good for you -- in fact, it's one of the worst things you can eat. One average serving of bacon -- three slices -- contains 435 milligrams of sodium -- about one-fifth of the average adult's daily allowance.
An average healthy adult eating a 2,000-calorie-per-day diet should aim for 45 to 65 percent of those calories to come from carbohydrates, preferably unrefined (and remember, carbs include all the sugar you eat, not just bread and pasta). You also want no more than 66 grams of fat (including less than 20 grams of saturated fat) and no more than 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day.
If your daily diet is full of junk foods such as fried foods, processed deli meats, bacon and soda, you have an increased risk of some major health conditions -- and if you eat these kinds of foods six days a week, you increase your risk of stroke by 41 percent compared to if you only indulged in them once a month.
Following nutrition guidelines and eating healthy foods does make a difference. People who eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day live longer than people who don't. But even if you'd rather have a slice of apple pie than an apple, you can make healthier choices, at least avoiding the foods you know absolutely aren't good for you.

1.Soda
Drinking soda is like drinking liquid candy. Seriously. Sodas are sugary calorie bombs that have contributed to the obesity epidemic in our country -- and our soda habit has also been linked to an increased risk of certain cancers, premature aging and hormone disruption.
Most sodas contain high fructose corn syrup (which is where all the calories come from), food dyes, preservatives and other sketchy ingredients. And your soda habit isn't just making you fat; it's also linked to cavities and tooth decay. Some sodas also contain an ingredient called brominated vegetable oil (BVO); BVO is supposed to keep the artificial flavors and the rest of your soda from separating -- and it also keeps plastics flame retardant and is linked to memory loss, nerve disorders and skin conditions. Diet soda drinkers also need to worry about the impact of artificial sweeteners on their health, which we'll go into detail on next.

2.Artificial Sweeteners
Every year, each American consumes more than his fair share of sugar -- about 150 pounds (68 kilograms) of it. And about 29 pounds (13 kilograms) of that is table sugar -- the granulated kind, which is also called sucrose. Some comes from honey, maple syrup or fructose (which is naturally found in fruits), but many of us also have a bad sugar substitute habit.
There are five artificial sweeteners, also called non-nutritive sweeteners, that the FDA considers safe for humans to eat: acesulfame potassium (acesulfame K), aspartame, neotame, saccharin and sucralose. Some sugar substitutes may leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, literally, but that's not the only thing bad about them. While we love our artificial sweeteners because they're zero or low-calorie, we really don't know how bad they are for us. There have been some confusing claims over the last few decades, but at the end of the day, these sugar-free sweeteners may be significantly increasing your risk of health problems such as weight gain as well as metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

3.Shelf-stable Condiments
Shelf-stable condiments sure do make life a little easier -- we won't argue that. We're talking about those condiments that are kept at room temperature -- single-serving packets or tubes of dips, self-serve pumps of your favorite sauce, bottles of ketchup and other sauces and salad dressings that sit out on the table at your local diner, and even those little prepackaged creamers for your coffee. Convenient, yes, but at what price?
There's a reason these foods can skip the refrigeration, and it's not because they're dried or fermented as shelf-stable foods of the past were; these condiments have been engineered not to deteriorate -- and that means preservatives and additives such as food coloring, sweeteners, salt, bad fats (such as trans fats, which are linked to premature heart disease) and chemical agents such as dimethylpolysiloxane for texture. (That example, dimethylpolysiloxane, is used as an anti-foaming agent in ketchup and many processed and fast foods -- think about that: Should ketchup foam?) Any fiber, good fats and nutrients are stripped out in the process.

4.Swordfish -- and Some Tuna
Most fish and shellfish can be part of a healthy diet. They're packed full of protein and are good sources of fats (they're low in saturated fat and full of omega-3 fatty acids). Most also contain mercury, at least some amount, and some fish contain more than others. Swordfish, for example, is one of those mercury-dense varieties (also included on this fishy list are king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, and tilefish). Albacore tuna, too, contains more mercury than canned light tuna, so choose wisely.
High levels of mercury in the fish we eat may harm the developing brain and nervous system of a fetus or young child because mercury is a neurotoxin, and because of this the FDA and EPA recommend against eating these fish, especially if you're pregnant, may become pregnant or are a nursing mother -- and kids need to avoid it, too.

5.Processed Meat
Processed meat -- that includes bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages, salami and whatever meat bits are used in ready-to-eat deli meats -- has been found to increase your risk for cardiovascular diseases as well as certain cancers. In fact, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found that people who regularly eat 50 grams (about 2 ounces) of processed meat -- that equals one hot dog or 1-2 slices of luncheon meats on a sandwich -- have a 42 percent greater risk of heart disease as well as a nearly 20 percent risk of developing Type 2 diabetes than people who don't eat them [source: Micha]. Additionally, researchers at the University of Zurich concluded that more than 3 percent of deaths could be prevented if we all limit our processed meat consumption to less than 20 grams per day (just about three-quarters of an ounce), which is about the size of a matchbook -- and only on a special occasion.
While processed meats are comparable to unprocessed meats when it comes to saturated fat and cholesterol, processed meats contain a lot more sodium -- 4 times more -- and also contain 50 percent more nitrate preservatives.

6.Microwave Popcorn
Movie-theater popcorn may be bad for you because of the oils it's popped in and the butter on top, but at least making it doesn't cause "popcorn lung" -- don't laugh, that's a real disease. It's also known as bronchiolitis obliterans.
Butter-flavored microwave popcorn doesn't really get its flavor from butter; it gets it from chemicals and flavoring agents. Diacetyl is what most people will point a finger at when they talk about how the health risks of microwave popcorn. Diacetyl is a butter-flavoring agent used in microwave popcorn -- by the end of the 2000s, some manufacturers banned its use in popcorn bags because of its respiratory risks (and, separately, a link to Alzheimer's disease), but you'll also find it giving a buttery flavor and smell to baked goods, candy and margarine.
Additional concern with microwave popcorn is what's in the bag -- aside from the popcorn. Without all the added chemicals, the popcorn would be an OK snack (high in carbs but low in fat – and a whole grain), but there are many chemicals coating the inside of the bag to keep the oils needed for popping from soaking through the paper, as well as chemicals to keep the bag from catching fire during the popping process. These chemicals also produce perfluorooctinoic acid (PFOA), which the EPA considers a likely carcinogen. Somehow, microwave popcorn doesn't smell so good anymore.
Want to DIY your microwave popcorn and skip the chemicals? Toss popcorn kernels in a brown paper bag, double fold the top of the bag, and pop as you would the processed stuff. You can also use a microwave-safe bowl with a plate on top to keep kernels contained as they pop.

7.Bagels
Your average bagel is going to cost you about 350 calories, and that's before you add any toppings. But bagels are bad for you beyond their caloric content (and what that will do to your waistline) -- most of them are made with refined white flour, which means all the good vitamins, minerals and fiber have been processed out of them. Refined white-flour foods are linked to weight gain, heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. And not only do they lead to weight gain, they also make it more difficult to lose weight, too.
Not all bagels are this bad for you; choose one made with 100 percent whole grains, choose a smaller, mini bagel or try this trick: If you scoop out some of the soft bready interior from the inside of the bagel, you could save as many as 100 calories.

8.Stick Margarine

If your buttery spread can stand on its own, it's the fats that are making that happen -- specifically, its saturated fats. Saturated fats are more solid than, for example, a monounsaturated fat such as olive oil, and these fats are bad for you because they expand your waistline, raise your bad cholesterol levels (while lowering levels of good cholesterol), raise your risk of heart disease and raise your risk of suffering a stroke.
Stick margarine used to contain trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, and some brands still do (always read the ingredient label); trans fats are considered one of the worst -- if not the worst -- fats for you to eat.



9.Dairy
If you're worried about the saturated fat in dairy, you could switch to nonfat milk, but you're still not escaping a few other unhealthy things -- namely, recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST, or bovine growth hormone). Bovine growth hormone is a genetically engineered synthetic hormone given to cows to boost their milk production, and it's controversial because it may introduce health risks not only to the cows but to humans consuming these dairy products.




10.Anything Deep Fried
Deep-fried foods are the weakness of many; even First Lady Michelle Obama has confessed her love for french fries. One of the problems with eating deep-fat fried foods is that cooking foods at such high temperature may cause them to form toxic chemical compounds -- that we then eat. You see, too many french fries won't only increase your waistline (which they will); your side order is also linked to health problems such as stroke and an increased risk of certain cancers including breast, esophageal, head and neck, lung, pancreatic and prostate. Men, for example, who eat fried foods -- doughnuts, fried chicken, fried fish and/or french fries -- once or more per week increase their risk for prostate cancer as much as 30 to 37 percent.
High-temperature cooking, and especially deep frying, also causes foods to develop AGEs (short for advanced glycation endproducts), and AGEs have been linked to chronic inflammation and disease-triggering oxidative stress

why cancer of the heart is rare

Food for thought: there are cancers of the brain, blood, lymph nodes, lungs, bone, and every other bodily organ, part, or system imaginable. Why, then, do we never hear about heart cancer — could it be our hearts, long symbolized as the root of loving emotion, are somehow immune to the dreaded disease? Unfortunately, the reason no one ever talks about heart cancer is much more mundane.
“We do have tumors that occur in the heart,” Dr. Jacqueline Barrientos, assistant professor, Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine, told Medical Daily in an email, “but these are not as common, so you don't hear about them.”
Indeed, malignant heart tumors, known as rhabdomyosarcomas, are extremely rare. A sarcoma is a type of tumor that originates in the soft tissues of the body; a rhabdomyosarcoma occurs in the muscle tissue of the heart. Their incidence is estimated at less than 0.1 percent, based on a study of more than 12,000 autopsies, which identified only seven cases of any kind of primary cardiac tumor. (Primary tumors are those that have originated where they are found, and have not spread from some other part of the body.)
That said, “most cancers found in the heart have come from elsewhere in the body,” according to Dr. Timothy J. Moynihan of the Mayo Institute, meaning they are secondary tumors. To understand exactly what he means, it might be necessary to review the fundamentals.

Back to (Cancer) Basics

Our bodies have an astronomical number of cells — uncountable, really — though one estimate places the number at 37.2 trillion. When we are healthy, our many cells cooperate and share the vast work of our body, all while they go about their separate business of growing, dividing (to provide a replacement for themselves), and then efficiently dying. Cancer, then, is simply an aberration of these cellular processes.
Cancer begins when cells start to grow out of control. This is due to damaged DNA, the genetic material carried in the nucleus of each and every cell. Normally, a cell repairs any damaged DNA, or simply dies, but cancer cells do not repair or die. Instead, they divide and make many more abnormal cells with damaged DNA. Another unusual property possessed by cancer cells is they are able to grow into —invade, really — other tissues. Normal cells cannot do the same.
So, when Moynihan says cancers in the heart have come from “elsewhere in the body,” he is talking about just such an invasion — the cancer began somewhere else in the body, but now it has infiltrated the heart.
Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, clinical assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, told Medical Daily the most common secondary tumors spreading to the heart “come from the lung, from the esophagus, and you can also see them from the liver, and the stomach. Even nests of leukemia cells form tumors in the heart.” More importantly, all of these different types of tumors “usually go to the right side of the heart,” Gaynor explained. “That’s where the blood enters the heart — on the right side.”
But a tumor is a tumor is a tumor, you say. How do doctors know where a tumor originates — especially when a new tumor may appear years later in a part of the body far from the original cancer site? When a new tumor appears, its cells are identical to those of the original tumor. So if a person had pancreatic cancer, say, and it spread to the brain, the tumor appearing in their brain, when viewed through a microscope, would look nothing like the tumor of a person with brain cancer — the cells of this brain tumor would look identical to pancreatic tumor cells.
If secondary tumors invade the heart, why is it so rare for primary tumors to develop there? According to Gaynor, the explanation begins and ends with our genes.

The Reason We Don’t Get Heart Cancer

As you likely know, we receive half our genes from our mothers, half from our fathers. While it would seem our genetic fate is sealed, “nothing could be further from the truth,” said Gaynor, whose new book on the subject, The Gene Therapy Plan, will be available in 2015. “We understand now how gene expression can be modified throughout your life… and that can create cancer,” he said.
In fact, our environment affects which genes become expressed (activated) as well as how frequently they become activated. And carcinogens coming from our food and environment are one of the many factors that influence which genes are activated or not.
“A lot of toxins are found in breast tissue, because there are a lot of fat cells there,” Gaynor explained. “And toxins are found wherever there is the most fat.”
While our bodies have some defenses against these contaminants, in the form of detoxifying enzymes, and while our bodies are supported by micronutrients which turn on tumor suppressor genes, dangerous toxins found in our fat tissue still modify our genes, which can result in cancers forming in the organs of our bodies, especially those containing fatty tissue.
This, then, is why the heart is so exceptional:
“There’s not a lot of fatty tissue [in the heart],” Gaynor said. Even more, “the heart’s enclosed in a membrane,” he explained. Known as the pericardium, this fluid filled sac may itself become engulfed by cancer, with tumors metastasizing to the outside of it, but still it does its job of protecting our precious hearts.
So, even though cancer can happen anywhere there are cells, your heart remains virtually immune due to its muscular nature and the assistance of the pericardium. Smart heart.