Reducing Your Cancer Risk
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
— Thomas Alva Edison (American Inventor, 1847-1931)
I am sure that you will agree that prevention is better than cure. And this is a good time of the year to review where you are in your life and what you want or need to do for yourself and your loved ones.
According to a study reported in the Lancet in November 2005 more than one third of cancer deaths are attributable to nine modifiable risk factors.
To evaluate exposure to risk factors and relative risk by age, sex, and region, the investigators analyzed data from the Comparative Risk Assessment project and from new sources, and they applied population-attributable fractions for individual and multiple risk factors to site-specific cancer mortality provided by the World Health Organization.
Of the seven million deaths from cancer worldwide in 2001, approximately 2.43 million (35%) were attributable to nine potentially modifiable risk factors. Of these deaths, 0.76 million were in high-income and 1.67 million in low- and middle-income nations; 1.6 million were in men and 0.83 million deaths were in women.
Smoking, alcohol use, and low consumption of fruits and vegetables were the leading risk factors for death from cancer worldwide and in low- and middle-income countries. In low- and middle-income regions, Europe and Central Asia had the highest proportion (39%) of deaths from cancer attributable to the nine risk factors studied.
For women in low- and middle-income countries, sexual transmission of human papilloma virus (HPV) was also the leading risk factor for cervical cancer. Smoking, alcohol use, and overweight and obesity were the most important causes of cancer in high-income countries.
Between 1990 and 2001 mortality from cancer decreased by 17% in those aged 30 to 69 years and rose by 0.4% in those older than 70 years, according to the authors, but this decline was lower than the decline in mortality rates from cardiovascular disease for men and women. The decline in mortality in men was largely due to reduction in mortality from lung, prostate, and colorectal cancers, while in women, lung cancer increased in the 1990s, and death rates for breast and colorectal cancer decreased. An article published almost ten years ago in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, it was estimated the worldwide attributable risk for cancer to infectious agents as 16%.
The nine factors were:
- High body mass index
- Low fruit and vegetable intake
- Physical inactivity
- Smoking
- Alcohol abuse
- Unsafe sex
- Urban air pollution
- Indoor use of solid fuels
- Injections from healthcare settings contaminated with hepatitis B or C virus
This all makes good sense, but it is good to see high quality research in reputable journals confirming what we suspected. The research also gives us further compelling reasons for taking a good look at our lifestyles and hopefully the motivation to do something to improve them. And in the case of air pollution and injection of contaminated products, to be active in getting things cleaned up.
“Keep your own house and its surroundings pure and clean. This hygiene will keep you healthy and benefit your worldly life.”
— Sathya Sai Baba (Indian Spiritual Teacher, c.1926-)
“Length of life does not depend so much on a good physical constitution as it does on the best use of the six non natural things, which if we rule aright, we shall live long and healthy lives: to divide the day properly between sleep and waking; to adjust our air to the needs of the body; to take more or less food and drink according to our age, our temperament and whether we live an active or inactive life; to take exercise or rest according to the quantity of food and whether we are lean or fat; to know ourselves and be able to rule our emotions and subject them to our reason. Whoever handles these wisely will live long and seldom need a doctor.”
–Giorgio Bagliivi (Italian Physician, Pathologist, Researcher and Author of De Fibra Motrice, 1669-1707)
“The best doctor prevents illness, a mediocre one treats illnesses that are about to occur, and an unskilled one treats current illnesses.”
–Chinese Proverb
Another Reason Why Breast Is Usually Best
Last month we looked at some of the extraordinary benefits of breast feeding.
There is an interesting paper in this month’s issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Approximately 19 percent of children are prone to the chronic and recurrent ear infections collectively known as otitis media. These infections can cause deafness and thereefore interfere with the development of language and lead to learning difficulties. We have known for many years that there can be a genetic predisposition to otitis media, but there has been little research to try and pinpoint the specific genes involved. There is also a complex relationship between genes, specific infectious agents and environmental factors such as exposure to cigarette smoke and breast-feeding.
The new research from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston examined genetic samples taken from 505 children in Texas and Kentucky, about 60 percent of whom were classified as "otitis media susceptible" because they had:
- Suffered an ear infection before the age of 6 months
- Or undergone three or more episodes of acute otitis media within a six-month period
- Or four or more episodes within a 12-month period
- Or had six or more episodes by age 6.
- Or had required drainage tubes to reduce recurrent or persistent ear infections
The researchers looked for small genetic variations called "single-nucleotide polymorphisms," – or SNPs – in three important genes that produce inflammatory signaling molecules for the immune system.
Two genes known known to generate the immune proteins known as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin 6 (IL-6). SNPs in each individual gene were enough to create an increased risk for childhood ear infections, and simultaneous SNPs in both genes increased the risk even further. These particular genetic variations cause a greater production of inflammatory signaling molecules and reduce the effectiveness of the immune system.
But here is the fascinating thing: the researchers found that the genetic effect could be counteracted by breast-feeding, which is well known to increase immune resistance.
We have here another fine example of how a healthy practice can overcome a genetic predisposition to illness. Remember what I have said many times before: Biology is not destiny.
On the hand another environmental factor – exposure to cigarette smoke – increased vulnerability to otitis media in children with the TNF-alpha gene variation. Cigarette smoke exposure alone was not enough to increase the risk for ear infections.
Genes, Environment and the Brain
We recently looked at the worrying suggestion that environmental toxins could, in susceptible individuals, be contributing to the apparent increase in autism over the last three decades.
There is increasing evidence that there are complex genetic and environmental interactions that contribute to abnormal aging and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases.
A new study from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, has done more to dissect this interaction. They collected information on 1136 consecutive patients who presented to the Joseph and Kathleen Bryan Alzheimer Disease Research Center. They showed possible significant contributions of toxic environmental and occupational exposures to pathological aging in 21% of the patients, and interactions of these exposures with common genetic polymorphisms that affect cell injury and inflammation. They found a series of genes that could partially account for differences in the type of cognitive problems that people experience, the age at which they developed them as well as the rate of progression.
The researchers targeted three genes in particular – apolipoprotein E, alpha-1-antitrypsin and the hemochromatosis gene. All three are expressed in the liver and in macrophages: cells that play a critical role in immune responses, inflammation and the body’s response to stress and infections. The first two genes are particularly involved in the metabolism of lipids and the third in the balance of iron and trace minerals. This ties in with another observation. Many chronic illnesses are associated with anemia. It is now thought that this also is a defensive reaction. Not to chronic illness, but to the problem that was far more common during evolution, and that was infection. The liver pulls iron out of the circulation so that bacteria cannot use it for their own growth. This is one of a number of adaptive responses that I discuss in the book and CD series, Healing, Meaning and Purpose.
But it was also clear form this new study that genes were not the only factor. I have spoken before about the small number of strategies that can dramatically reduce our risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The authors of this study agree about the importance of factoring in environmental factors including, alcohol use, nutritional deficiencies and sleep and mood disorders, all of which can have an impact on cognition.
This study is yet another step toward clarifying the role of genes, inflammation and cell injury in the development of degenerative changes in the brain.
While pharmacologists can use this information to help devise new ways to protect your brain, you can use it immediately. There is a range of behavioral and dietary strategies that can reduce the burden of inflammation in the body. I shall write about some of them in articles and an eBook in the near future.
We do not know whether these strategies can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, but there are some intriguing suggestions that they can.
Arsenic and Water Safety
Here is a new study that may turn out to be one of the most important of the year.
Tens of millions on people around the world, most particularly in Bangladesh, are forced to drink water containing dangerously high amounts of arsenic. The very same stuff that has been used by countless poisoners.
The classic symptoms of arsenic poisoning are:
- Headache
- Abdominal pains
- Vomiting
- Difficulty breathing
- Light headedness
- Delirium
- Neuropathy
- Stroke
- Skin lesions: usually thickening of the skin of the palms and soles with wart-like excresences
- Reduced production of red and white blood cells
- Increased risk of cancers of the lung, skin, bladder, liver, kidney and prostate
- Death
The exact pattern of symptoms depends on the acuity of the exposure, the amount of arsenic to which a person is exposed and the individual’s own makeup.
The new research – published this week in the journal Science – is from Rice University’s Centre for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology in Texas, and it may give us a quick and cheap way of getting most of the arsenic out of drinking water. The investigators used minute particles of iron oxide – very similar to common rust – to bind large amounts of arsenic. The iron oxide particles are really tiny: just 12 nanometres (billionths of a metre) across, about 5,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. When mixed into contaminated water, the tiny crystals became coated with the poison and began behaving like iron filings. The iron oxide/arsenic combination can then be removed from water using a simple hand-held magnet.
One of the investigators, Professor Doug Natelson had this to say, "The idea of using magnetic particles to filter and clean water is not particularly new. The trick here is that these particles are very, very small, which means they’re essentially all surface. So the arsenic sticks to the surface of the particles, and what we’ve found is that when the nanoparticles are in the right range of sizes, you can pull them out of solution with a relatively small magnetic field gradient that you could get from, say, a permanent magnet."
As an additional refinement, the scientists needed to develop a technology that would be usable in one of the poorest parts of the world. In one experiment flakes of rust were made into nanoparticles by heating them in coconut or olive oil at 350C. They could then be used in water purification.
This is excellent news, and if confirmed, it could save hundreds of thousands if not millions of livees, and unspeakably awful chronic ill health.
Industrial Chemicals and Autism
There is an exceedingly important article in this week’s issue of the Lancet, that has not yet received the attention that it deserves.
I have time and again discussed the extraordinary burden of artificial chemicals now born by the human body. None of which was present 100 years ago. It is not rocket science to ask whether this toxic burden may have soething to do with the the rise of many neurological and psychiatric illnesses, given the sensitivity of the growing brain to any kind of environmental insult.
The article, entitled “Developmental Neurotoxicity of Industrial Chemicals,” is written by two senior academics from Denmark who also hold positions at the Department of Environmental Health at Harvard School of Public Health, the Departments of Community Medicine and Pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
What they say is this. The report begins by saying that neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, attention deficit disorder, mental retardation, and cerebral palsy are common and can cause lifelong disability. Indeed, 1-in-6 children has a developmental disability, which mostly affect the nervous system. The causes of these problems are largely unknown.
Secondly, the prevention of neurodevelopmental disabilities is hampered by the great gaps in testing chemicals for developmental neurotoxicity and the high level of proof needed for regulation.
Next, the list of potentially damaging chemicals is extremely long. A few industrial chemicals are recognised causes of neurodevelopmental disorders and subclinical brain dysfunction, for instance methylmercury, arsenic and lead. we simply do not know how manyother chemicals may affect the brain. Exposure to these chemicals during early fetal development can cause brain injury at doses that are much lower than those affecting adult brain function. Recognition of these risks has led to evidence-based programmes of prevention, such as the gradual elimination of lead additives in petrol. Although these prevention campaigns have been highly successful, most were initiated only after substantial delays. Another 200 chemicals are known to cause clinical neurotoxic effects in adults. That being the case, since the young brain is so much more sensitiv, we can only assume that many of these chemicals must also be dangerous to the fetus, baby and growing child.
This article is published at the same time as an investigative report in the National Geographic. The magazine paid $15,000 for a reporter to have a full toxicological analysis, and if you have any doubts about toxins, I would urge you to read the article.
As a side bar, many clinical practitioners offer different kinds of toxicological analysis based on hair, skin, blood or electrical testing. Some years ago we looked into many of these methods using confirmatory analyses using a full scale research laboratory at Northwick Park Hospital in London. We found very poor correlations between the results obtained by the laboratory and three labs doing hair and blood analysis. I’m sure that some labs do a good job using hair and other types of analysis for a good deal less than $15,000. But It’s good to be a little cautious before relying too much on some of these unorthox evaluations. Just ask the lab to give you the methods that they use, the standard errors of their testing, their false positive and false negative rates, and how often they get their results checked by an independent laboratory. Then you can be confident that you or your practitioner is using a good one.
The conclusion from all the published literature, some of which is summarized in the Lancet?
Environmental toxins are there, growing and they may be responsible for the catstrophic rise in some neurodevelopmental disorders, in particular autism.
We probably have enough empirical evidence toadvocate some serious cleaning up of the environment, which will likely only happen once people begin to vote with their feet. Governments are taking notice of global warming now that it is being suggested that it may damage national economies.
We need urgently to see whether, if the are present, we have – or can develop – viable methods for clearing these toxins from the human brain
and restoring normal structure and function.
The Death of Fish
“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.”
–Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist and Philosopher, 1817-1862)
The BBC has just run a gloomy report based on an article published this week in the journal Science.
For years now, fisherman have been reporting that many of the larger
game fish have been getting smaller and younger, and the same has been
reported of smaller fish in the major fishing grounds.
Now this research, which seems quite impeccable, predicts that there will be virtually nothing left to fish from the seas by 2048 if current trends continue. Stocks of fish have collapsed in nearly one-third of sea fisheries, and the rate of decline is accelerating.
When the first reports came out, they quickly became fodder for the late night comedians: “You think they use a lot of batter now? Just imagine how much they’re going to have to put around a minnow, come 2050.”
But that quickly gave rise to an understanding of he gravity of the situation: the decline in numbers of fish is closely tied to a broader loss of marine biodiversity. And that is the point. I’ve heard people say, “I’m a vegetarian, so I don’t care,” or “I don’t like fish anyway.” The ocean, like every other known ecosystem, is like a vast interlocked organism.
Everything that lives in the ocean is important. The diversity of ocean life is the key to its survival. The areas of the ocean with the most different kinds of life are the healthiest. If we knock out entire species the whole will cease to function, and then we have dead oceans. Ocean fish filter toxins from the water. They protect shorelines, and they reduce the risks of algae blooms such as the red tide.
In addition, a large and increasing proportion of our population lives close to the coast; the loss of services such as flood control and waste detoxification can have disastrous consequences.
These findings are not a computer model, or some prediction of future trends. They are based on actual observations of what is happening right now.
Why are we talking about this issue in a blog dedicated to personal growth, integration and wellness? Because seeing the larger You – the You that is interconnected with the rest of the Universe, the You that transcends your physical body, your brain and your emotions – is crucial to all of those three goals.
Yes, you can certainly feel a lot more healthy by eating better. Breathing exercises are valuable too. Do the two together and you get the advantage of synergy: they leverage each other. But you will really make progress when you begin to feel, really feel in a deep down visceral way, that You are something much larger and more grand. And that You also have responsibilities for the welfare of the planet. Because You are part of it, and it is a part of You.
Once You – the whole Big You – really “gets that,” you will feel the need to leave an enduring legacy, and You become an unstoppable force for good. Then you progress rapidly. Not because you are working on yourself, but because you are now acting from your Higher Self.
“I have had the experience of being gripped by something that is stronger than myself.”
–Carl G. Jung (Swiss Psychologist and Psychiatrist, 1875-1961)
“In the end we all must turn to the inner Source of all our best human sources, to the Guru of all the gurus, to the Overself. Then why not now?”
–Paul Brunton (English Spiritual Teacher and Author, 1898-1981)
Tips for Trips
I’ve not written any new items for a couple of days while I was in England and out of range of anything resembling a decent Internet connection.
But a grand total of seventeen hours on planes made me think that it’s high time to tell you about some of my tips and techniques for dealing with the rigors of flying.
I’ve got so many of them that my tips will stretch over more than one article.
By now most people will have heard about the importance of:
- Maintaining hydration: the low pressure and dry atmosphere on planes can quickly dehydrate us. I try to drink at least 20 fluid ounces every two hours that I’m in the air.
- Avoid drinking alcohol and coffee.
- Keep mobile. When it is safe to do so: walk up and down the aisle. Stretch your legs and arms and gently rotate your neck while sitting in you seat.
The most worrying things about flying is the risk of developing a Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). This is an important topic: one in 2,000 long-distance passengers will suffer a blood clot, which can be fatal if the clot detaches and reaches the lungs: this is known as pulmonary embolism. DVTs are more likely to occur if there is a change in the rate of blood flow, the character of the blood of the normal functioning of the walls of the large veins. There are a number of well-recognized risk factors for the development of DVTs:
- Obesity
- Immobility
- Oral contraceptives
- Some cancers
- Cigarette smoking
There is a great long list of potential causes, but our focus today is on factors that can increase your risk of developing a DVT if you fly.
DVTs have been recognized to occur not just in passengers on planes, but also in people at extremely high altitude.
For many years it has been assumed that the low pressure and the immobility together increase the risk of DVT. But new research from the Universities of Leicester and Aberdeen was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in May.
In a study of 73 people, the researchers found that sitting for long periods was the main cause, and warned people about all forms of travel.
During the study, the volunteers spent eight hours sitting in chambers with reduced air pressure and oxygen. They were allowed to move around for a couple of minutes each hour. They were then also tested in a chamber without changes in the atmosphere. The idea was to simulate the conditions on a plane. Blood samples were taken before and after each “flight” to check for factors involved in blood clotting.
For all these factors, no significant differences were seen between blood samples taken from volunteers on a simulated flight or exposed to normal air pressure. So it is not the low air pressure and oxygen saturation that is to blame: it is the lack of movement.
It is also unlikely that the advice to take an aspirin before a flight is going to be much help.
During my travels I have seen people selling extracts of horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) to prevent DVTs. There is actually some research that horse chestnut can help with chronic venous insufficiency. But there is no credible evidence that taking a couple of horse chestnut capsules will prevent a DVT, or the less severe problem of ankle swelling. And horse chestnut is well known to have a number of side effects, so there doesn’t seem to be much point in taking it to prevent ankle swelling and DVTs when flying.
The smart move (ha!) is to do regular exercise during flight, and to avoid dehydration.
I’ll tell you some of my tips for turning flights into highly productive work time and how to avoid jet lag in other posts.
Climate Change and Civilization
I have several times now sounded warnings about the impact of climate change on health and the re-emergence of some infectious diseases.
Today I’d like to tell you about a remarkable theory that could have profound implications for how we see ourselves and our place in the world.
Dr. Nick Brooks from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at the University of East Anglia has recently proposed a remarkable hypothesis. It has long been assumed that civilization started where is did because conditions had become very hospitable, but people banded together for mutual protection and for hunting and agriculture.
By contrast, Nick Brooks proposes that severe climate change was the primary driver in the development of civilization. He proposes that without climate changes thousands of years ago, we might have remained farmers, herders and hunter-gatherers.
The early civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and northern South America were founded between 6000 and 4000 years ago when global climate changes, driven by natural fluctuations in the Earth’s orbit, caused a weakening of monsoon systems resulting in increasingly arid conditions. These first large urban, state-level societies and monumental architecture such as the pyramids, emerged because diminishing resources forced previously transient people into close proximity, in areas where water, pasture and productive land was still available.
It is certainly remarkable that all of these places where the first urban civilizations developed, arose in once humid and productive environments that are now largely covered by desert. One theory has been that many of these deserts, as well as the Sahara desert, were the result of over-grazing by goats.
In a presentation to the British Association Festival of Science earlier this month, Dr. Brooks said, “Civilization did not arise as the result of a benign environment which allowed humanity to indulge a preference for living in complex, urban, ‘civilized’ societies. On the contrary, what we tend to think of today as ‘civilization’ was in large part an accidental by-product of unplanned adaptation to catastrophic climate change. Civilization was a last resort – a means of organizing society and food production and distribution, in the face of deteriorating environmental conditions.”
He added something that we now see all over the world: for many, if not most people, the development of civilization meant a harder life, less freedom, and more inequality. The transition to urban living meant that most people had to work harder in order to survive, and suffered increased exposure to communicable diseases. Health and nutrition are likely to have deteriorated rather than improved for many.
The new research challenges the widely held belief that the development of civilization was simply the result of a transition from harsh, unpredictable climatic conditions during the last ice age, to more benign and stable conditions at the beginning of the Holocene epoch some 10,000 years ago.
This work also presents some profound philosophical implications, because it challenges deeply held beliefs about human progress, the nature of civilization and the origins of political and religious systems that have persisted to this day. It suggests that civilization may not be our natural state, but the unintended consequence of adaptation to climatic deterioration – a condition of humanity “in extremis.”
Dr Brooks said: “Having been forced into civilized communities as a last resort, people found themselves faced with increased social inequality, greater violence in the form of organized conflict, and at the mercy of self-appointed elites who used religious authority and political ideology to bolster their position. These models of government are still with us today, and we may understand them better by understanding how civilization arose by accident as a result of the last great global climatic upheaval.”
This is an extraordinary throwback to the ideas of romantic philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau who contended that Man is good by nature, but it corrupted by society and civilization.
Though we need to continue to be very alert to the dangers inherent in climate change, could it be that it is actually an invitation to evolve?
Peripheral Neuropathy
Treating peripheral neuropathy can be one of the toughest problems facing a clinician. Peripheral neuropathy simply means disease affecting the peripheral nerves.
There are a great many cause of peripheral neuropathy. This is just a partial list to give you an idea of the things that a clinician has to think about before starting treatment:
- Metabolic illnesses: Diabetes mellitus; porphyria; chronic renal failure; amyloidosis and disturbances in circulating proteins
- Vitamin deficiencies: Vitamins, B1, B3, B6 and B12
- Drugs and chemicals: Alcohol; Heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury; organic pesticides; several drugs used in cancer chemotherapy; isoniazid; nitrofurantoin
- Infections: Lyme disease; Herpes zoster (shingles); Diphtheria; Brucellosis; Leprosy; Tetanus; Botulism
- Malignant illnesses
- Inflammatory and autoimmune illnesses: Rheumatoid arthritis; Systemic lupus erythematosus; Polyarteritis nodosa; Sarcoidosis; Guillain-Barre syndrome; Celiac disease
- Physical injury: Trauma, stretching and compression of nerves, which can include things like carpal tunnel syndrome.
- Congenital illnesses
Many causes of peripheral neuropathy, particularly diabetes, may also damage the autonomic nervous system that controls the heart, blood pressure, swallowing, intestinal and bladder function.
Neuropathic symptoms typically start in the feet, because the nerves running down there are longer and more vulnerable than the ones going to the hands.
The most common symptoms are:
- Numbness
- Tingling
- Abnormal sensations called dysesthesias
- A characteristic form of pain, called neuropathic pain or neuralgia: people usually describe it as “pins and needles,” a steady burning sensation or “electric shocks.” These pains can be difficult to describe: typically pains, like stubbing your toe or stepping on something sharp, are transmitted through pain fibers. Neuropathy also involves other neurological pathways, so that the brain receives impressions that it cannot process.
There has been a revolution in out understanding of neuropathic pain in recent years. It is now considered to be a disease rather than a symptom. Normal pain is designed to protect you: you put your foot on a hot plate and you pull it away immediately. Neuropathic pain is different: it is non-protective and it persists and therefore behaves like a disease.
Multiple different classes of medications have been shown to be effective in some people with neuropathic pain, though most are not approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration:
- Lidocaine patches and creams
- Capsaicin creams
- Opioid analgesics
- Tricyclic antidepressants
- Serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)
- Anticonvulsants: Carbamazepine; gabapentin; pregabalin
Earlier this week, data presented at the European Federation of IASP (International Association for the Study of Pain) Chapters (EFIC) indicated that an innovative combination of painkillers might hold the key to unlocking the severe and relatively untreatable pain of peripheral neuropathy.
Dr Magdi Hanna, Director of Pain Clinical Research Hub at King’s College Hospital in London, has been studying the combination of the strong opioid oxycodone (OxyContin) with gabapentin (neurontin) in over 300 patients with severe diabetic neuropathy. This combination demonstrated a significant 33% improvement on top of the best pain relief achievable using the maximum tolerated dose of gabapentin as monotherapy. The study was part funded by one of the medicine manufacturers.
This study is good news, but even in this study there were a great many people who were not helped. In another blog item, I’m going to talk about some of the unorthodox approaches that have helped some people.
It’s Not Just Spinach!
The news yesterday of E. coli contaminated spinach must have been enough to make Popeye weep.
According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, as of today, 102 people have been infected with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7 have been reported to CDC from 19 states, and one person in Wisconsin has perished.
Just to re-iterate what you’ve probably heard on the news already: E. coli is often a nasty resistant little bug that is not always killed by cooking. So the best advice is to throw away any spinach that may be suspect. The bacterium can make you very sick. You may have heard that one person has already died and at least a dozen more are in the hospital.
Several years ago there was an egg-borne Salmonella outbreak in the United Kingdom, and we’ve heard of several outbreaks of hepatitis A related to food contamination. There are outbreaks of food poisoning every now and then. And then there is the constant worry about “Mad cow disease,” that led to the wholesale slaughter of animals in the United Kingdom a couple of years ago.
Overall, Secretary Johanns and his team at the United States Department of Agriculture are doing a good job of protecting us.
Be aware, though, that apart from food, there are many other places that bacteria and occasionally viruses can lurk:
- Makeup: the ingredients in makeup can make good breeding grounds for some bacteria. Don’t keep makeup for too long, particularly if it’s been in a hot damp place
- People carry a lot of bugs. That doesn’t mean that you have to become worried about being around them, but it’s best not to get in an elevator is someone’s coughing or sneezing. I’d like to say the same thing about planes, but that’s usually not practical. I’ve many times had to use homeopathic remedies after a flight to prevent a cold – or worse – from emerging. Others have even taken antibiotics after a long flight next to someone nursing a cold. A bit illogical in my view: most upper respiratory tract infections are viral.
- Many bacteria and a few viruses get transferred to hands and doorknobs. You cannot spend your life being terrified of such things: it ruined the life of Howard Hughes, and in real life Adrian Monk would really be suffering. But you can wash you hands – with soap – in warm water for one minute whenever you get the chance. Studies have shown that most people don’t wash their hands properly. And I like those little sterilizing towels that you can carry with you.
- Change your toothbrush every 2-3 weeks.
- If you can afford them, those Ionic Breeze devices do seem to help keep the air cleaner.
- And I’m sure that I do not need to remind you, gentle reader, of the importance of carefully washing your hands after visiting a rest room.
