Researchers at UC, Davis have found that fructose, a common soft drink ingredient, may be linked to obesity.

The researchers measured the levels of insulin and leptin in women who consumed a meal with a fructose sweetened beverage or a glucose sweetened beverage, and found that the fructose was associated with decreased hormone levels, and there was an long-lasting increase in triglycerides as well.

(T)his pattern of hormonal responses is similar to that observed after consuming a high-fat meal, and continues, “Based on our previously published work, this metabolic profile resembles that of fat consumption. Thus, despite the fact that fructose is a sugar, metabolically the responses are similar to those seen following fat ingestion.”

The article also notes that the rate of fructose use is also similar to the rate at which obesity has risen in the US.

Personally, I decided a couple of years ago that when going out to eat, if I was going to get empty calories, I’d rather have water with dinner and then get dessert afterwards. But that could just be me. (But if I’m not going to have dessert, I sometimes will splurge and get soda.) At home, I have milk with dinner, so it’s moot point.

Most everyone remembers Bush’s State of the Union speech about fighting AIDS, here and abroad, yes?

We have confronted, and will continue to confront, HIV/AIDS in our own country. And to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS.

Nice thought. Too bad he didn’t mean it.

The Bush administration and some members of Congress appear to be playing a nasty game of political football with AIDS and global health issues. In recent days, the administration has radically reduced the number of government scientists who will be permitted to attend the biennial International AIDS Conference, slashed its support for the event and its funding for an annual meeting of the Global Health Council. The reason? Aid and comfort for the policies of the religious right.

This is from Laurie Garrett’s article ‘This Nasty Game Is Scored in Lives’ in the May 30th LA Times. (For those who don’t know who Laurie Garrett is, she wrote the phenomenal book, The Coming Plague.

This administration is seemingly doing everything it can to place public health in danger, including cutting funding and staffing for the NIH.

Public health is just that–public. And research into one disease can lead to treatment for another disease entirely.

AIDS is a global threat, and failure to fight this and other diseases with all the tools available is not just foolish, but just plain wrong.

Check out this post, with links to the source material, on the relative safety of vehicles.

Check out the pictures of the crash test results of the Cooper Mini compared to the Ford F150, and make sure to look at the data for fatalaties per million cars by car model.
(via Neil Gaiman)

Speaking of the horrors of flooding, the tip sheet from Michigan State University has tips on salvaging momentos after a flood.

too many people give up and throw out paper or photos before trying to preserve damaged items. She recommends putting wet materials in a frost-free freezer.

“What that does is it buys you time – it stops the water absorption.Frost-free pulls moisture out of the content, so it will dry it and stop the mold growth. You want to save it, but you need to treat it and make sure it’s safe. The best thing to do is buy yourself time to make the right decision. So many people just throw stuff out thinking nothing can be done, and that’s the saddest thing.”

Despite years of belief to the contrary, new research has found that the presence of dead bodies after a natural disaster is not a source for epidemics or a risk to the health of survivors. According to an article in the Pan American Journal of Public Health, “There is no evidence that, following a natural disaster, dead bodies pose a risk of epidemics.”

In fact, the article states, a rush to bury bodies following a disaster can “leave survivors with doubts concerning the whereabouts of a family member and make it harder for survivors to mourn their loss. When bodies are not identified, a surviving spouse or child can be left in a legal limbo.”

The article also says that despite popular convention, buried bodies are not a threat to ground water and do not contaminate drinking water.

This is particularly interesting, considering that news reports of the flooding in Hati have talked about the danger of the dead bodies.

A study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association has found that yo-yo dieting suppresses the immune system.

Although this is only a preliminary study, the researchers found that “frequent weight loss episodes were associated with significantly decreased natural-killer-cell activity” and “(t)hose who reported losing weight more than five times had about a third lower natural-killer-cell function.”

Once again, I’d like to say that health-wise, remaining active and eating a healthy diet is far more important than getting one’s weight down to some arbitary number. Yes, weight loss is important, but more important is eating well and exercising regularly. Yes, both activities may take extra effort, but even small steps, such as cutting out sodas and junkfood, and taking the stairs or parking at the far end of the parking lot will help.

I highly recommend Andrew Weil’s Eating Well for Optimum Health if you are intereted in nutrition and health. Although he looks like a flake, his dietary recommendations are grounded in science and are reasonable and practical.

But if you’re only going to remember one thing about weight loss, make it exercise.

There was a fascinating article in one of the recent issues (1 May 2004. vol 182 no 2445) of New Scientist on photosynthesis. Apparently, scientists are finally close to completely understanding photosynthesis, which means that we may be .closer to the ability to efficiently make energy from sunlight. Sure, we have solar cells, but solar cells are nowhere close to as efficient as plants are at converting light into energy.

More specifically, what scientists have discovered (at least they think they have discovered) is how plants use light to split water into oxygen, hydrogen, and electrons.

What I missed the first time I read the article, was that this process would gives us hydrogen (the fuel of the future acording to some) from water.

If we develop the ability to convert light to energy as efficently as plants, this makes me much more optimistic about the future of the world–reliance upon polluting fossil fuels could become a thing of the past, except perhaps in the most remote areas. (Problems in places like Antartica during the winter when there is little or no light, and more problems in the desert because of the need for water. Although, of course, hydrogen could be shipped to those places.)

But just imagine! We could the ability to use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to create energy. The possibility for desalination plants to supply water to coastal areas that lack clean water. The possibility of efficient solar power. All from artifical chlorophyll! Everything will be green!

It almost makes me wish that I’d stuck with plant biology.

The other thing this brings to mind is a discussion that I once had with my friend Lenny, that we dropped without exploring it further, which is the climate change consequences of solar power. I live in a small town, that has on its edges, rural wooded areas. What I have noticed for years is that there is a significant temperature difference between the paved city, and outside the paved city. If you have your hand out the window in the summer you can actually feel the temperature drop. All that cement keeping the heat (this shouldn’t be any big surprise to anyone so far).

What made me curious was the idea of a town putting solar panels on the roofs of most of the buildings in the area. What if we developed the ability to make road surfaces out of solar cells? Would this not cool down the temperature of the town? Wouldn’t this change the temperature of a city to something closer to that of a wooded area?

It’s possible I’m missing something, and if so, please point it out. But it’s an interesting idea.

Dinosaurs found!

Volcanologists monitoring an active volcano at White Island in the Bay of Plenty New Zeland have captured a dinosaur on their webcam!

(Thanks to Heather for the link.)

From an article on a preventive program and how it reduces crime and other social ills.

– 79 percent fewer cases of child abuse and neglect among the families who went through the program compared to the control group.
– 33 percent fewer subsequent pregnancies.
– 54 percent fewer arrests among 15-year-olds.
– 69 percent fewer convictions and probation violations among 15-year-olds.
– 58 percent fewer sexual partners among 15-year-olds.

And there’s more!

…for every $1 invested in prevention, $4 were saved in the future…

Sounds like a good program, right? So do they want to implement it across the country?

Despite the success of the Elmira programs, early-childhood prevention programs statewide are woefully inadequate, Wiley said.

Officials are also concerned that when economic conditions worsen and budgets get tight, preventive programs are often the first to get the ax.

As usual, public health programs are the first on the cutting board. For some reason politicians see saving a dollar now as more politically expedient than saving four or five times that in the future.

What’s that old saying? Penny wise and pound foolish. That’s the government for you.

(via Respectful of Otters)

A construction worker has miraculously survived after six nails were embedded in his skull.

You must click on the link and see the x-ray.

I am, of course, immediately reminded of Phineas Gage. I wonder whether the portions of his brain that were damaged will lead to similar problems such as Phineas Gage had.

Fantstic article from the Guardian on America’s obsession with weight.

Hey, it’s public health. That means it’s studying, right?
(via Neil Gaiman)

We went to dinner with Kim and Mike Saturday, and one of the discussions reminded me of a theory I heard several years ago, about creature phobias. The details are foggy, I just remember that it was a biologist of some sort who worked with creepy crawlies, and he said that he’d noticed that people tended to have a fear of snakes, or a fear of spiders, but typically not both.

Oddly enough, I’ve found this to be true. People seem to be disturbed by creatures with either too many legs, or not enough legs. I don’t mind snakes, but I have an absolute horror of centipedes. I don’t mind spiders too much, but then spiders kill things like roaches and ants and other nasty bugs that creep me out.

So as part of our after dinner discussion (Lesson: Don’t have dinner with a group of people who like biology), we discovered that Mike and I were both grossed out by the mere thought of centipedes, while Kim completely flips out when we talk about snakes and slugs (Mike joked about getting her a UCSC Banana Slugs T-shirt, to which Kim replied that if he did, she’d put spiders in his bed.) Michael had little to say about the whole subject. He tends to sit back and listen, thinking whatever deep thoughts he thinks at times like that. Either that or he’s secretly laughing at us.

So I’m curious as to whether this is something tends to be true for a larger part of the population—whether we have in some built in fear of either too many legs, or not enough legs, but typically not both.

This is absolutely fascinating:

During Tuesday’s Good Morning America, a representative of Tyco Fire and Security displayed the amazing properties of the chemical that’s called “Sapphire.”

The chemical has all the firefighting properties of water, yet it will not cause the damage to items that is usually associated with water.

Tha material is god, obviously for libraries and museums, but the business applications are there as well. Think about the damage done when a sprinkler system leaks, or malfunctions, which could be avoided with the use of non-wet water.

It reminds me of the breathable water that I saw a few years ago, that applications for helping premature infants with repiratory problems.

Science continues to amaze me.
(via Monkeys In My Pants)

Here is an entire collection of candidates for the Darwin Award. The Naval Safety Center has a photo of the week, of people doing really stupid things, like tying ladders together so they can reach high places.

I immediately sent this off to my dad, who will now have a whole variety of pictures to use in his afety classes.

I’m sure his students will thank me.
(via Iron Monkey)