Lyme Disease And Top Predators

Lyme disease is a growing problem, reaching epidemic status in some areas.

See:
NPR SciFri: Tick Talk: Lyme Disease Under The Microscope
Vancouver Sun: B.C. must act to combat Lyme 'disease explosion,' scientist says

The most common explanation is that warmer winters lead to better survivability and hence a growing range for the disease. I took CDC data from 2001 - 2010 to show the change in reported Lyme disease cases from 2001 - 2010:

 
The NYT reports on a new study indicating a plausible relationship between coyotes and foxes and Lyme disease carrying white footed mice: Predators, Prey and Lyme Disease

The hypothesis is with coyotes expanding east they are displacing foxes. And since mice are a main component in the fox diet this change in the top predator is contributing to a decline in mice mortality and this leads to more cases of Lyme disease because there are more mice.

Why are coyotes expanding their range to the Eastern U.S.?
[NatGeo: Coyotes Now at Home in Eastern U.S.]

Prior to 1850 coyotes lived in the plains and western U.S.
[via NWF]

While the wolf was top predator for most of the United States
 
 [via NPS]
(the lack of wolves in the southeast United States could be due to this being part of the historical range of Mountain Lions)

Wolves and foxes occupy different niches in the ecological ladder and are able to coexist in a shared habitat whereas coyotes occupy the range between these Canids hence wolves/coyotes and coyotes/foxes compete with each other for the same food with the smaller species the loser in these interactions. By extirpating wolves from their historic range beginning around 1850 humans set the stage for the expansion of coyotes. As coyotes became the top predators the fox populations declined. As this happened the population of the favorite foods of wolves and foxes exploded (deer and mice). As these former prey populations have grown so have their ability to be disease vectors.

The Inter-connectedness of Things

Therefore, the killing of wolves has likely led to a potential lyme disease epidemic.

An unbalanced ecosystem missing its top predator is nudged by the perturbation of climate chaos; and the result is an explosion in cases of Lyme disease.

"The Earth isn't fragile; we are"

Fat

The headline from TH says it all: In 1991 The Fattest US States Were As Thin As The Leanest in 2009

This is especially noticeable when watching movies from the 1980's and earlier. Not just the stars, but all the extras are thin. This was the normal.

2010 Sunscreen Safety

I wrote about sunscreens in 2009: Sunscreen Safety

The Environmental Working Group has released their 2010 Sunscreen Guide

They only recommend 39 out of 500 tested sunscreens. Those are:

All Terrain
Aquasport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30
TerraSport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30
KidSport Performance Sunscreen, SPF 30

Badger
Sunscreen for Face and Body, Unscented, SPF 30
Sunscreen for Face and Body, SPF 30 Lightly Scented
Sunscreen for Face and Body, SPF 15 Lightly Scented

Beyond Coastal
Lip and Face Screen, SPF 30

California Baby
Sunblock Stick No Fragrance, SPF 30+
Sunscreen Lotion No Fragrance, SPF 30+
Sunscreen Lotion Everyday/Year-Round, SPF 30+
Sunscreen Lotion, SPF 30+, Citronella
Sunblock Stick Everyday/Year-Round, SPF 30+

Caribbean Solutions
Natural/Biodegradable SolGuard, SPF 25
Sol Kid Kare Natural Sunscreen, SPF 25

Desert Essence
Age Reversal SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen

Episencial
Sunny Sunscreen, SPF 35

Estion
Sunscreen with Zinc, SPF 38

Jason Natural Cosmetics
Sunbrellas: Mineral Based Physical Sunblock, SPF 30+
Sunbrellas: Chemical Free Sunblock, SPF 30+
Earth’s Best: Sunblock Mineral Based, SPF 30+

Kabana Skin Care
Green Screen Organic Sunscreen Fragrance Free, SPF 20
Green Screen Organic Sunscreen, SPF 22, Skin Tone Tinted

L’uvalla Certified Organic
SPF 20 Sunscreen Face/Body

La Roche-Posay
Anthelios 40 Sunscreen Cream

Little Forest
Sunscreen Lotion For Babies and Kids, SPF 30+

Loving Naturals
Sunscreen, SPF 30+

Miessence
Reflect Outdoor Balm, SPF 15
Purple Prairie Botanicals
SunStuff, SPF 30
Sun Stick, SPF 30
SunStuff, SPF 15

Soleo Organics
All Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+
Soleo Organics/Wyland Organics All Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+
Soleo Organics/Atlantis Resort All Natural Sunscreen, SPF 30+

thinkbaby and thinksport
Sunscreen, SPF 30+

Trukid
Sunny Days Face and Body Stick, SPF 30+

UV Natural
Baby Sunscreen, SPF 30+
Sunscreen Sport, SPF 30+
Sunscreen, SPF 30+

Vanicream
Sunscreen Sport, SPF 35

Eating Non-Fat Is Nonsense

Or Atkins was right.

Via SciAm: Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart

Life Is Bigger

Some of the TED talks this year are about living a healthy life.

CNN: Uncovering secrets to a longer life

This talk is about "Blue Zones"

The premise of Blue Zones is: identify the optimal lifestyle of longevity and you have a de facto formula of longevity.

And via BB: "We can eat to starve cancer"

Real Life Imitating 'The Simpsons'

Many years ago I saw an episode of 'The Simpsons' where Mr. Burns learned the only thing keeping him alive was that every disease was trying to infect him at once and so they all blocked each other.

With this in mind see this at The New Scientist: Common cold may hold off swine flu

"We think that when you get one infection, it turns on your antiviral defences, and excludes the other viruses,"

And this special I recently saw on PBS regarding how descendants the survivors of Europe's black plague carry a mutation that also makes them immune to HIV: Mystery Of The Black Death

Government Doctors Save Heart Attack Victim At An Anti-Health Care Rally

Via Ezra Klein: Socialism in action

Why Are There So Many Pre-term Births In The U.S.?

And if infant mortality is less in Europe then isn't their health care better in that respect?

Via NPR: U.S. Trails Far Behind Europe In Infant Mortality

Freakin' Lieberman

I never liked that Gore picked him as running mate in 2000. It was a bad idea. His latest antics show why.

Harper's: Lieberman Shills for the Healthcare Industry

Slate: The Lieberman Option

Comparing The Government Option In Health Care And Parcel Delivery

The US Postal Service has emerged as the example of a "public option" that conservatives point to when they argue against government sponsored health insurance. See: Post office wrong target for conservatives

Yet, as posted at FiveThirtyEight: Picking on Cliff Clavin, FedEx and UPS thrive despite the USPS but they also hand off packages to the USPS in rural areas where the private carriers don't want to go. And it is the rural population that is more conservative. Perhaps they should think about if they'd get any parcel delivery at all if it weren't for the "public option".

An Evolutionary Explanation Of Depression

It is for analysis of complex problems perhaps.

See SciAm: Depression's Evolutionary Roots

You Are Fat Because Of What You Eat

Duh.

See PhysOrg: Increased food intake alone explains the increase in body weight in the US

How much of the obesity epidemic has been caused by excess calorie intake and how much by reductions in physical activity has been long debated and while experts agree that making it easier for people to eat less and exercise more are both important for combating it, they debate where the public health focus should be.

A study presented on Friday at the European Congress on Obesity is the first to examine the question of the proportional contributions to the obesity epidemic by combining metabolic relationships, the laws of thermodynamics, epidemiological data and agricultural data.

"There have been a lot of assumptions that both reduced physical activity and increased energy intake have been major drivers of the obesity epidemic. Until now, nobody has proposed how to quantify their relative contributions to the rise in obesity since the 1970s. This study demonstrates that the weight gain in the American population seems to be virtually all explained by eating more calories.

Why There Is A Flu Season

Dr. Jeff Masters of the Weather Underground explains it as a function of humidity and temperature in Influenza and the weather

And there is evidence it may be tied to summertime Vitamin D exposure: Epidemic Influenza And Vitamin D

You Give Me Fever

Fascinating story about doctors from the 19th century having sporadic success in putting tumors and cancer in remission by inducing fever.

See AmeriSci: Healing Heat: Harnessing Infection to Fight Cancer

The thinking is that cancer cells are designed to keep the immune system from reacting too strongly. Having a fever ramps up the complete immune response which includes dealing with cancerous cells.

This reinforces my hypothesis that RSV related wheezing in toddler and infants is partly due to the accompanying fever; in that, the body responds to the fever by ramping up the immune response and inadvertently attacking and constricting the respiratory system.

Health And Intelligence

Smarter Men Have More Sperm

Spiked Eggnog Is Safe Eggnog

See PhysOrg: Microbiologist Tests Safety Of Spiked Eggnog

With one in every 20,000 eggs contaminated with Salmonella bacteria, drinking homemade eggnog can be something of a gamble. But an experiment designed to test whether the alcohol in spiked eggnog can kill the deadly bugs suggests that, in general, few bacteria survive in a mixture containing both raw eggs and 20 percent rum and bourbon.

Peanut Allergy News

This makes sense to me.

Early exposure to peanuts may prevent allergy

The researchers analyzed the prevalence of peanut allergy and diet histories for 5,171 Jewish children from the UK and 5,615 Jewish children from Israel.

They found that children from the UK had a prevalence of peanut allergy that was 10-fold higher than that of children from Israel...

"The most obvious difference in the diet of infants in both populations occurs in the introduction of peanut," they note. Approximately 69 percent of infants in Israel consume peanuts by 9 months of age, compared with just 10 percent of those in the UK.

Likewise, when compared with the UK mothers, the Israeli mothers consumed significantly more peanuts during pregnancy, Du Toit and colleagues point out.

The researchers suggest that recommendations to avoid peanut in early infancy could be behind the increase in peanut allergy in the UK, Australia and the US.

New Study Shows Health Benefits Of Urban Parks

Interesting British study showing that access to green spaces and parks improves people's health and also "counteracts the effects of poverty on deprivation".

See TH: Urban Parks Help Defeat Inequality

Autism = Genes + Environmental Trigger

Scientist are now looking to identify the environmental triggers.

See:
Study showing evidence of a major environmental trigger for autism

Emasculation

I think this is a story we'll be hearing more about soon.

See: The disappearing male

More and more boys are being born with genital defects and are suffering from learning disabilities, autism and Tourette's syndrome, among other disorders.

Male infertility rates are on the rise and the quality of an average man's sperm is declining, according to some studies.

But perhaps the most disconcerting of all trends is the growing gender imbalance in many parts of heavily industrialized nations, where the births of baby boys have been declining for many years.