Health Class: What Is A Pandemic?

The World Health Organization has now moved the Global Pandemic Alert indicator to level 5.  This is just one level short of level 6, which is defined as a full, all-out, put plastic on the windows pandemic.

Here in Texas we’re seeing all kinds of reactions to the supposed threat of the swine flu virus.  The entire Fort Worth school system shut down due to a single teacher showing signs of the flu after returning from a trip to Mexico.

The whole school system!

Mexico has pretty much shut down all public venues, and the airlines that do still fly there, are piloting mostly empty planes back and forth.

We’ve already talked about the swine flu and it’s history.  But something that’s always confused me is just what exactly is a pandemic?  How is it different than an epidemic? And closer to home, should we be pulling our three year old out of his pre-school?

Time to crack the textbooks.

The Academics of Pandemics

Pandemics and epidemics both refer to the spread of infectious diseases among a population.

An epidemic is defined as an illness or health issue that is appearing in more cases than would normally be expected.  One or two cases of the flu don’t constitute an epidemic.Half of a school coming down with the same bug does.

Very fuzzy.  And by fuzzy, I mean there is no defined number of cases that can be used as a measuring stick.  Health officials are charged with deciding if an outbreak rates being classed as an epidemic.

A pandemic is the next step up from an epidemic.  It affects more of the population and is typically spread over a global area.  But still, no hard numbers are associated with the deifinition to allow an objective assessment of what is and what isn’t a pandemic.

Let’s take a hypothetical example and assume several people contract the same flu-like symptoms in a particular area. Let’s further assume that cases show up across the state, but the concentration remains localized in a few original cities. Some cases even turn up elsewhere in the nation, but the illness doesn’t catch on elsewhere. In the hubs where it is seen the infection rate remains more than you would expect to normally see. This is a classic example of an epidemic.

Now let’s take that same scenario but imagine the rate of infection started growing exponentially so that more and more cases were cropping up locally. When the rate of infection grows very fast it is likely, given favorable circumstances, that the epidemic grows into something more. Now we start seeing cases across the nation and the rate of infection is exceeding even that of an epidemic. It turns out in our hypothetical scenario that most of the population in the nation becomes affected by this flu. This is a pandemic.

So, I’m still confused.  Are we really at pandemic levels? Yet?  The rate of infection does seem to be rising pretty quickly.  But there are still less than a hundred reported cases here in the U.S.  We have had one death, but that was a toddler who had traveled to South Texas from Mexico.  And many of the U.S. cases are recovering on their own without the need for hospitalization or prescription therapy.

What do you think?  I’m all for erring on the side of caution, but are we over-reacting at this stage?

And if you want to monitor the expanding swine line, take a look here.

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Science And Scary Sounds

Our research dollars at work.

Evolutionary psychologist (that’s a specialty?) John Neuhoff and his colleagues at The College of Wooster in Ohio are in the midst of a study on “looming” sounds.  The study consists of individuals in a test environment listening to a tone as it moves towards them.  They are instructed to push a button when they think the sound has moved to a point directly in front of them.

Turns out nearly all participants push the button too early.  Neuhoff and his team have interpreted this to mean that humans have adapted to anticipate danger and thus react to the location of the sound before it actually reaches them.

So, get the theory?

Test subject is sitting there.  Uh, oh.  There’s a scary tone moving towards him.  But he’s not supposed to push the button until the tone is right in front of him.  But it’s such a scary tone.  It’s moving closer.  It’s right there!  He pushes the button.

Turns out the sound was still some distance from the subject.

Hey, this is science!

Now, here’s the interesting part of the study.

Neuhoff and his team correlated button push response times with the fitness level of the subjects.  Turns out that physically fit men allow the sound to get closer before pushing the button, while fitness challenged men push the button much sooner while the sound is still some distance away.  This expands the previous body of work around “looming” sounds that found that women routinely respond to “looming” sounds sooner than their typically larger, stronger male counterparts.

So, the study’s conclusion is basically that wimps react to dangerous noises differently than jocks.  Presumably they react sooner due to their need for more time to get away, while the jocks just say “bring it on”.

Mark your calendars.  Neuhoff will be presenting these results in a talk titled “Strength and cardiovascular fitness predict time-to-arrival perception of looming sounds” to be presented at the 157th Acoustical Society of America Meeting to be held May 18-22 in Portland, Ore.

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Swine Flu 101: This Little Piggy Went To Mexico

A little history lesson.

The influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 killed between 20 and 40 million people across the globe. Over 28% of all Americans ended up being infected, with 675,000 actually dying from the strain also known as the “Spanish Flu”.

Get your attention?

Let’s move forward to February 5, 1976. At Fort Dix in New Jersey, an army recruit complained of feeling tired and weak. He died the next day. Four other soldiers were later hospitalized with the same symptoms. Two weeks later, health officials announced that swine flu was the cause of death and that this particular flu appeared to be closely related to the strain responsible for the 1918 pandemic.

A botched vaccination program was rushed into place with more people dying from reactions to the vaccine than from the flu strain.

It wasn’t until 30 years later that another significant swine flu outbreak occurred. This was in 2007 in the Philippines and was contained.

Present day.

In March and April of 2009, over 1,000 cases of swine flu have been reported in Mexico with at least 80 deaths resulting from the disease. The new virus — which combines genetic material from pigs, birds and humans in a strain researchers have not seen before — has also sickened at least eight people in Texas and California, though there have been no deaths in the U.S.

“We are very, very concerned,” World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham said. “We have what appears to be a novel virus and it has spread from human to human … It’s all hands on deck at the moment.”

With all the advances in modern medicine, when the head of the WHO expresses concern over an outbreak, I’m pretty sure we need to pay attention.

So, the concern about a major outbreak appears to be legit and the more you know about this particular form of the flu, the better prepared you can be to recognize the symptoms.

What is swine flu?

It’s a flu that typically occurs in pigs. Humans can catch it from having close contact directly with infected pigs, but historically it is rare for that to occur. The 2009 version of the flu, however, is concerning because the strain can pass directly from person to person.

Is the strain being detected in the U.S. cases the same as the one spreading in Mexico?

The virus that is being found in the U.S. cases does appear to be the same strain as the one in Mexico. However, while the disease has caused multiple deaths in Mexico, the reported cases in the U.S. have been far less severe. Most patients have been able to recover from the flu symptoms without requiring hospitalization.

No one knows why there is such as disparity between the occurrences in the two countries, but CDC officials do warn that more severe cases are likely to occur here in the States.

I feel like I have the flu. Could it be the swine strain?

According to health officials in New York City, people with “ordinary” flu symptoms should not rush to seek emergency care. However, some warning signs to watch for are:

• Difficulty in breathing
• Bluish skin tint on body extremities
• Flu symptoms that appear to improve, then return with fever and a severe cough
• Pain or pressure in the abdomen
• Dizziness or confusion
• Persistent vomiting

Is the swine flu treatable with drugs?

There are two drugs that are effective in reducing the severity of the swine flu symptoms: Tamiflu and Relenza. However, for the U.S. cases reported to date, the use of these drugs has not been required. One key thing to remember is that neither drug is a vaccine so their use is limited to treatment rather than prevention. Typically used for the short term treatment of severe symptoms, the drugs are ony available via prescription.

What can people do to reduce the spread of the disease?

The usual. Cover your nose and mouth when you sneeze or cough. Wash or sanitize your hands frequently. Avoid touching your moth, nose, or eyes with unwashed hands. Stay away from infected people.

Anyone even experiencing mild symptoms should stay home and avoid human contact until at least 48 hours after the symptoms have subsided.

What’s that old tag line from some series of t.v. commercials?  The more you know…

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No More Hiding..The Coats And Sweaters Come Off

We are getting our first taste of Summer here in Dallas this week.  Time to toss away the sweats and pull out the bathing suits and t-shirts.

And, for many people, the first wave of warm weather brings the realization that pool and beach time is fast approaching.  And that maybe it’s time they pop into the gym.  The one they joined back on January 2 in a rush of New Years resolution fervor.  The one they haven’t set foot in since January 3.

So, if you’re one of those who are trying to bounce back from a Winter hibernation, here are some tips to help you squeeze into that bathing suit.

Drink More Water

Keeping your body hydrated will actually improve weight loss.

When your body does not get plenty of water, the kidneys tend to go into “lazy” mode.  In response, the liver is forced to handle the waste excreting duties that are the kidney’s primary responsibility.  The liver is also responsible for helping the body convert stored fat into energy.  When it’s also having to do work the kidneys should be handling, its fat burning capacity is reduced.

So drink water throughout the day to keep your kidney’s awake

Start Cutting Way Back On Refined Carbohydrates

Time to get rid of the chips, cookies, white bread, and soda.  Foods with processed sugars are loaded with empty calories (by the way, when you hear the term”empty calories”, it means calories that come with substances that have no nutritional value).  They also interfere with blood insulin levels and inhibit the body’s ability to manage energy stores, thus promoting increases in body fat.

Oh, and alcohol is chock full of empty calories.

Trade Those Pasta Dishes For Fruits And Vegetables

The body is required to burn calories to break down nutritionally dense fruits and vegetables - especially when they’re raw.  They are low in calories, make great snacks, and come with a ton of other nutritional benefits.  I’m usually in a hurry in the mornings, so I’ve started downing one of those mini-cans of V-8 as I’m rushing out the door.  They have about 75 calories, fill me up (at least for a couple of hours), and let me get in one of those eight recommended servings of fruits and vegetables.

More Equals Less

A knee jerk reaction of many people trying to lose weight is to skip meals.  Don’t.  Your body tends to slow metabolism down to compensate.  Very counter-productive to losing weight.  Plus it just makes you hungrier when you finally do decide to eat.

The best approach is to actually eat 5-6 mini meals throughout the day, starting at breakfast.  Maybe 2-3 meals of a meat or dairy protein with a veggie side and 2-3 in-between “snacks” of nuts, fruit, or some other low calories, nutritionally dense food.

Exercise

This is a subject for another post, but get out and work out.  Exercising is the single most effective change you can make to lose weight.

See you poolside.

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Ten Things I Want To Do

Was watching that Jack Nicholson - Morgan Freeman movie “Bucket List” the other night.  In the flick, our heroes are both terminally ill and are on a world spanning quest to do the things they’ve always wanted to do before they die.

Not a very good movie, but it did get me thinking about some things I haven’t done in my life.  Yet.

I’ve been very fortunate in my life as I have had the opportunity to engage in some activities that many of my friends openly wonder about.  These include diving with Great White sharks, hiking the Australian Outback, and tramp sailing the British Virgin Islands.  I certainly can’t complain about a lack of adventure in my life, but there are still some things I haven’t done that I can’t wait to experience.

So, here are ten things I definitely want to do.  And no, I’m not going to say ‘before I die’ because that’s just drawing a morbid line in the sand.

1. Attend a Carnival parade and party in Brazil. I’ve had friends who traveled to attend Carnival and they rave about the legendary celebration.
2. Have a book published. Yes, I’m a closet fiction writer.  Have a mystery/suspense manuscript I’ve been working on.  just need to focus on getting it finished.
3. Climb an active volcano. Just to be able to look down into the belly of the earth.
4. Take a ride in the space shuttle. No explanation needed.
5. Travel on the Trans-Siberian Express across Asia. An amazing trip through the Orient.
6. Learn a martial art. As the years go by, I’m thinking of something more along the lines of tai chai as opposed to kung fu.
7. Base jump off a skyscraper. Yea, not sure my wife would go along with this one.
8. Participate in a professional jet ski race. I love tearing around a choppy ocean in a souped up Seadoo.
9. Run in a 10k with my son. If my knees can hold out, he should be ready in about 10 years.
10. Teach my grandchildren how to throw a ball. This one is a little further off, but it’s the dream that really keeps me going.

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An Aussie Mate Has Found The Secret To Getting Fit

Okay, maybe not THE SECRET, but he definitely has put together a really good program for losing weight and getting fit.

(I don’t normally do plugs, but the following is a shout out for an Aussie done good)

Adam Waters is a friend of a friend from down under and he has developed a fitness/diet program called the RTP Transformation System.  And unlike the trendy fad fitness programs that are out there, it takes a realistic, comprehensive approach to getting fit.

Adam was once a couch potato til one day he decided to make some changes in his life.  Over a number of months he thoroughly documented his transformation into an active, fit stud.  He compiled all these lessons learned and designed the RTP System.

I encountered Adam in social settings a couple of times when I was in Oz and I never would have guessed he had ever been anything but a hyper, charismatic, in-shape guy.  So, to see the pictures of the before, during, and after were really shocking.

Anyway, I’ve looked at the program and over the last couple of weeks have incorporated many of the training guidelines (anaerobic vs aerobic isolation, etc) into my own workouts.

If nothing else, browsing his site makes for some fascinating reading.

Adam Waters RTP Transformation System

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Popeye: A Sailor Ahead Of His Time

Looks like Popeye has been right all along.

For the past eighty years, our favorite diminutive sailor of the high seas has been tossing back cans of spinach every time he needed to put a whooping on one of the bigger cartoon bullies that were out to get him or his ‘goil’ Olive. Spinach gave him the strength to knock the bad guys across the screen.

Interestingly enough, Popeye’s dependence on the leafy green vegetable arose from a decimal point error made by a scientist in the late nineteenth century. This error led to the publication of nutritional information stating that spinach had ten times the iron content that it really does, making it the first advertised “superfood”.

The error was not corrected until 1937, by which time Popeye and thousands of American children were already hooked on the green stuff.

Now scientists at Rutgers University have discovered that eating spinach really does boost strength. Turns out spinach contains strains of natural muscle enhancers called phytoecdysteroids, and they’ve been shown to speed up muscle growth in human tissue by 20%. Experiments on mice have also demonstrated that ingestion of these chemicals can result in substantial strength increases in just a matter of weeks.

So, in addition to the heart healthy ingredients, spinach can also pump you up.

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Road Warriors Win The Airlines Battle Of The Bulge

I have noted in earlier posts that it’s going to start costing obese people real dollars to keep the weight on.  Now United Airlines has joined several of the other major carriers in bumping people who can’t fit in the seats from full flights and making them buy an additional ticket if they want to be rescheduled on another flight that’s full. United claims to have received 700 complaints in 2008 from people who were frustrated with having to share a seat with someone spilling over or under the arm rest.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that, as a former road warrior myself, I used to hate the experience of being crammed into an airplane’s coach section.  I’m certainly not obese and even for me those seats are cramped and leave little room for breathing, much less getting comfortable.

I believe that the airlines got together and commissioned a study that determined the optimal seat size that represented a balance between reasonable comfort and maximum capacity.  The problem is, this study must have been conducted back in fifties, because seat sizes haven’t changed.  And I know people back then were smaller.  It was a littler time.

So, maybe it’s time for the airlines to reevaluate the seating design of their aircraft.  They certainly have done wonders over the last 10 years to make the business and first class sections the ultimates in travel comfort.  They put lounge chairs with mini theater systems, sleep shades, and even beds into some of these premium seating areas.

But as soon as you part that curtain and stare down that narrow aisle in coach, you’ll still see the same cattle car of thinly cushioned sheet metal seats bolted together row after row, like one big flying sardine can.

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Howard Dean Triple Dog Dares Barack Obama To Compromise On Health Care

Anyone who has been a regular reader of this blog knows that I am a staunch free market, less government, let me keep the money I earn kind of guy.  Some might call that right wing.  Some might call it selfish.  I call it taking responsibility for my own welfare.

And I, like many of my friends who float left and right of center, am somewhat confused by what is going on in Washington.  Well, even more so than usual.

We have a Democratic president that spent much of his campaign promising to basically turn the United States tax system into a pot luck dinner where everyone gets to eat steak, whether or not they even brought a side dish. I particularly remember an interview with a young woman at one of his campaign rallies.  She was emotional and clearly caught up in the magic that was the pre-election Obama Experience.  Much like the films I’ve seen of the old Beatles concerts where women were passing out in their seats.

Anyway, when asked what she had learned from Obama’s speech, she replied to the effect that once Obama was elected, she was finally going to be taken care of.  She actually made the statement “Barack is going to pay my mortgage”.  Clearly she was just one of many that expected an Obama presidency to bring riches to the masses.

Here’s why I am somewhat confused.  President Obama’s words and actions in these first 100 days or so tend to make me think he’s either  much more of a moderate than we thought, or even the unified power of a Democratic Congress and Democratic President can’t bring about the radical changes they were promising right up til Election Day.

For example, Howard Dean, after being passed over for the top job at Health and Human Services, has decided to take his health care vision to the masses in the form of a new web site: StandWithDrDean.com

Howard Dean flies pretty left of center and has for years been a strong proponent of a public - i.e. “universal” - health care system.  He was a staunch supporter of President Obama and his plan for making public health care a priority for his first year in office.

Now Dean is concerned that Obama may compromise on the proposed health care package that the Executive office put together. Any compromise would likely eliminate or water down the provisions establishing a government sponsored health care system for the American public. Dean has established a grass roots organization via his StandByDrDean web site to garner support for the health reform package as originally outlined in the Obama-Biden Plan.

Obama seems prepared to accept the fact that the government sponsored public health plan pieces of his proposal will never pass through even a Democratically controlled Congress. At least not in its current form. Dean has drawn a line in the sand by stating that reform is not reform unless all Americans are provided economical access to health care.

Personally I’m somewhat surprised that Obama has not been trying to push his original vision for a public health care system through. He seemingly could be using the public and their current-but-fading love-all-things-Barack to be putting pressure on Congress to pass the proposal. Instead he appears to be willing to compromise without much of a fight.

Savvy politician?  Or just in over his head.

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Core Training: What’s With All The Bouncy Balls?

One of the latest fads around the gym is the concept of core training. Well, maybe fad isn’t the right word. Core training is more of an advancement in the science of physical fitness that has been twisted and mutated into a variety of fad programs offered by health clubs and personal trainers.

These programs or routines usually involve performing resistance exercises while balancing on a rubber flat bottomed stability trainer or draped over an inflated rubber exercise ball. The theory behind the training is that performing resistance exercises while trying to maintain your balance forces you to use the “core” support muscles to keep from toppling over. And if you’re holding a dumbbell of any significant weight, you are definitely motivated not to topple over.

So, what are these core muscles?

The list of core muscles is fairly arbitrary and can differ from “expert” to “expert”. In general though, the core or support muscles are those that run the length of the trunk and torso. When these muscles contract, they stabilize the spine, pelvis, and shoulders thus creating a solid foundation of support for the extremities of the body.

This range of muscle includes (let’s read along in our Anatomy textbook together):

• Erector Spinae - A collection of three muscles running from your neck to the lower back.
• Rectus Abdominis - The muscle that runs down the front of your abdomen. Also known as the six-pack and typically sported by those who stay away from the other kind of six-pack
• External Obliques - These muscles lie on the front and sides of the abdomen. They are what’s hiding beneath those love handles.
• Internal Obliques - These lie under the external obliques.
• Transverse Abdominis - This is the deepest abdominal muscle and lies under the obliques. It wraps around your waist like a weight belt and provides stability and protection to the spine.

Other muscles often included in discussions around the core include the hip flexors, hip abductors, and the gluteus maximus.

Many of the core training programs you find offered in gyms focus on the strengthening of the abs. All those “Strengthen Your Core With Six Pack Abs” and “Core Crunch” programs concentrate on the abdominals when actually, the abdominals play a minimal role when it comes to core support.

Working the core is much more than just doing crunches and other ab work. It is a workout that focuses on all the muscles listed above that stabilize the connection between the lower back, hips, and pelvis.

The key to efficient core training is stabilization. It is training that strengthens the ability to stabilize the trunk and pelvis muscles. Everything from maintaining good posture, living life without back pain, and maintaining mobility depends on the strength of our core.

Pilates and yoga are both excellent forms of core training. They both focus on the use of body weight and movement to contract the various core muscles in strict isolated movements. They introduce the concept of strict, controlled movements that is so necessary to efficient core training.

Which is why I sometimes laugh when I see a guy trying to do dumbbell bicep curls while balancing precariously on a flat sided stabilization ball. He’s swaying back and forth while trying to lift the dumbbell. That’s not stabilization and it’s certainly not effectively training the core muscles.

The key to working with stabilization balls is to work up to trying to manage weights while balancing. First learn to balance and keep your core muscles stabilized (i.e. not moving). The goal is to be able to maintain strict controlled movements that keep the core muscles stable and contracted. Once you can do this using only your own body weight, then it might be time to introduce the dumbbells.

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