Exposome! (I Learned a New Word Today)

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In an extensive review, the team found that the early life exposome, which encompasses one’s diet, lifestyle, weight, environmental exposures, and microbiome, has changed substantially in the last several decades. Thus, they hypothesized that factors like the westernized diet and lifestyle may be contributing to the early-onset cancer epidemic…

Possible risk factors for early-onset cancer included alcohol consumption, sleep deprivation, smoking, obesity, and eating foods. Surprisingly, researchers found that while adult sleep duration hasn’t drastically changed over the several decades, children are getting far less sleep today than they were decades ago. Risk factors such as highly-processed foods, sugary beverages, obesity, type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, and alcohol consumption have all significantly increased since the 1950s, which researchers speculate has accompanied altered microbiome.

Cancers in adults under 50 on the rise globally – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/09/220906161454.htm. Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Cancers in adults under 50 on the rise globally: Researchers identify risks factors and trends behind an increasing incidence of early-onset cancers around the world.” ScienceDaily. (accessed September 7, 2022).

I’ve been cooking a lot this week and decided to give myself a break tonight. Grab a burger maybe some pizza.

Then I read this article.

Maybe I will cook tonight.

Asymptomatic Tiny Human Disease Vectors

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Just 14% of adults who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 were asymptomatic, versus 37% of children aged 0-4 years, in the paper. This raises concern that parents, childcare providers, and preschools may be underestimating infection in seemingly healthy young kids who have been exposed to COVID, wrote lead author Ruth A. Karron, MD, and colleagues in JAMA Network Open.,,

“Given the higher rate of transmissibility and infectivity of the Omicron variant, it is difficult to make direct associations between findings reported during this study period and those present in the current era during which the Omicron variant is circulating,” they wrote in an accompanying editorial. “However, the higher rates of asymptomatic infection observed among children in this study are likely to be consistent with those observed for current and future viral variants.”

Many Young Kids With COVID May Show No Symptoms — https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/980195?src=rss

A little more science on those Tiny Human Disease Vectors. See my last post Tiny (and not so tiny) Human Disease Vectors – the Princeton-led Study

May you live in interesting times.

Omicron booster shots are coming—with lots of questions – Updated 9/2/22

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The new shots target both the original strain of the coronavirus and the omicron BA.4/BA.5 subvariants that most people are catching now. This double-barreled vaccine is called a bivalent vaccine. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/31/1120241293/fda-authorizes-first-revamp-of-covid-vaccines-to-target-omicron

For the BA.4/BA.5 boosters, the companies have submitted animal data. They have not released those data publicly, although at the June FDA meeting, Pfizer presented preliminary findings in eight mice given BA.4/BA.5 vaccines as their third dose. Compared with the mice that received the original vaccine as a booster, the animals showed an increased response to all Omicron variants tested: BA.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5.

Omicron booster shots are coming—with lots of questions — https://www.science.org/content/article/omicron-booster-shots-are-coming-lots-questions

Update 9/2/22

Some answers to commonly asked questions can be found in the Stat article.

On Thursday evening, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the recommendation made earlier in the day by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, that the newly formulated vaccines be used.

Your questions on the new Covid vaccine boosters answered — https://www.statnews.com/2022/09/01/your-questions-on-the-new-covid-vaccine-boosters-answered/

Social media use can lead to low quality sleep and harm mental health — Health Secrets of a SuperAger

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Many people in today’s world live with their smartphones as virtual companions. These devices use electronic social media networks that alert users to updates on friends, favorite celebrities, and global events. Social media has become firmly integrated into a lot of people’s daily lives. According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of people in the […]

Social media use can lead to low quality sleep and harm mental health — Health Secrets of a SuperAger

Thank you Tony.

Micro-clots and long COVID (it’s a hypothesis people)

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But many hematologists and COVID-19 researchers worry that enthusiasm for the clot hypothesis has outpaced the data. They want to see larger studies and stronger causal evidence. And they are concerned about people seeking out unproven, potentially risky treatments.

Nature 608, 662-664 (2022)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02286-7

This is a good article on the micro-clot hypothesis behind long Covid.

Don’t bother with the herpes article but if you have to, here you go:

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02296-5

The Biggest Life Event That No One Talks About

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Retirement is more than a transition in our relationship with money. It is a major shift in our sense of self. The work that has defined our lives for decades begins to fade from view. Everything about life is different after retirement, down to the minute details of the daily routine. I think it is important to ask yourself, who am I without my job, without my career? And more importantly, how will I spend my time? How will I spend my days, weeks, months, seasons, and years once the routine ends? These are vital questions for anyone contemplating retirement. For many, the allure of endless days on the beach or in the garden loses its luster quite fast. The risk of becoming bored is a real and unexpected risk that many retirees face.

https://blairbellecurve.com/the-biggest-life-event-that-no-one-talks-about/

The endless string of triple digit days has finally ended. I’m so thankful that it’s not Too Hot to Blog and the writing is free and effortless once again. I’m still thinking strategy because having A Plan is Not a Strategy – Update 08.03.22. Yet time and time again the question begs an answer. How will I spend my time in retirement?

As long as I continue working the question doesn’t require an answer.

I guess I’ll keep working.

What do we know about Covid-19 vaccines in under 5s?

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How researchers and public health officials perceive the risk-benefit ratio of rolling out vaccines to under 5s varies around the world and depends on the impact covid-19 has had on that country. Sweden has had just a handful of fatalities in those aged under 18,6 and vaccines are still not available to children aged 5-11 years. But in Brazil the virus has killed an average of two children under the age of 5 each day7—a rate which equates to around one in every five deaths among under 5s worldwide. Understandably, doctors are keen to boost protection levels, fearful of the impact that future variants might have.

BMJ 2022;378:o1892 — https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o1892 (Published 23 August 2022)

Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults reached all-time high in 2021

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Alcohol remains the most used substance among adults in the study, though past-year, past-month, and daily drinking have been decreasing over the past decade. Binge drinking (five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) rebounded in 2021 from a historic low in 2020, during the early stages of COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, high-intensity drinking (having 10 or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks) has been steadily increasing over the past decade and in 2021 reached its highest level ever recorded since first measured in 2005.

Marijuana and hallucinogen use among young adults reached all-time high in 2021 — https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-among-young-adults-reached-all-time-high-2021

Yikes!