Can sweat transmit Hepatitis B?
Hepatitis B virus was found in the sweat of 13 percent (9) infected athletes, according to a new study on 70 male Olympic wrestlers, which inferred that the HBV could be transmitted by sweating infected athletes to others in contact sports. In 8 of those nine athletes whose blood tested positive for HBV, DNA for hepatitis B was also found in the sweat.
“Evidence is emerging that the incidence of occult HBV in Olympic wrestling is higher than expected and that transmission of HBV may also occur through sweat,” the researcher concluded in a report published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine March 1, 2007, which newer data support.
The authors recommend sports organizations make it “obligatory for all participants involved in contact sports and playing under adult rules to be vaccinated against hepatitis B.”
Are there normal-weight obese people?
This sounds like a contradiction in terms, but normal-weight obese (NWO) is a person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is normal but whose body fat is more than 30 percent of the body weight. Also called “skinny-fat,” this individual has normal weight but with low muscle mass and high body fat. Extreme dieting, yo-yo weight control, or high-cholesterol diet can lead to normal-weight obesity. So, BMI alone is not a reliable indicator of body composition and health risk.
Italian investigators, in their research comparing women, found that NWO women had greater levels of inflammatory (C-Reactive) proteins than (low-fat) normal-weight women, suggesting that fats secrete inflammatory proteins. These particular proteins are a marker for heart disease, like coronary artery disease, which is the cause of heart attack.
Can hardening of the artery be reversed?
The combination of statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) and niacin (vitamin B-3) not only protect against future cardiovascular complications but may actually reverse the build-up of plaques (hardening of the artery) in already damaged arteries, according to the report of researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Millions of people around the globe take statins to reduce the total cholesterol and the Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDL, the bad cholesterol) and slow down hardening of the arteries to minimize the build-up of plaques attached to the inner wall of the arteries which reduces their the caliber, and in many cases, blocks the arteries, causing heart attack or stroke. Niacin, on the other hand, helps increase the level of High Density Lipoprotein (HDL, the good cholesterol), “which acts to dissolve the cholesterol plaques attached to the inner wall of the arteries”….and combining the two gives you a plaque-dissolving, “artery-cleaning dynamo, akin to a roto-rooter,” says the news report about it.
We beg to disagree with this generalization. Knowing that old and mature plaques are calcified (as hard as our bones or teeth), based on worldwide pathological findings and on our own experience in the operating room as a cardiac surgeon, the so-called “plaque-dissolving roto-rooter cleaning-action” or “reversal of damage” most apparently involved young and new cholesterol plaques that were still soft or gelatinous. Once they are calcified, no chemical on earth (no matter how potent, like muriatic acid, sulphuric acid, or any other chemicals known to man), much less available drugs in the market, can dissolve mature and hardened plaques.
While the drug combination reported has genuine medical merit, it should not be considered by any of us as a “license” to indulge in high-fat, high-cholesterol diet, and abandon with impunity the medically-proven healthier lifestyle.
Do beta-blockers also protect the brain?
A joint study by researchers Stephen M. Oppenheimer, M. D., of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and Somchai Laowattana M. D., of the New Jersey Neuroscience Institute suggests that beta-blockers (heart drugs) also protect the brain.
“Among all the prescribed medications these (111 stroke) patients had been taking, only beta-blockers were significantly associated with less stroke severity, after other factors were taken into account,” the investigators reported in the medical journal Neurology two weeks ago.
Oppenheimer stated “perhaps beta blockers could have a dual effect—by both lowering blood pressure and thereby reducing the likelihood of stroke and decreasing its severity once it occurs.”
Obviously, further studies need to be undertaken to confirm this observation in a much larger scale clinical setting before a final medical conclusion could be drawn.
Is global diabetes worse?
Reports from Washington March 1, 2007 stated that “rates of diabetes in Canada’s most populous province already zoomed past what was predicted for 2030, which suggests the global epidemic will be far worse than feared.” Latest report confirmed this.
In Ontario alone, the researchers found “a 69 percent increase in the rate of diabetes between 1995 and 2005, far beyond the 60 percent global predicted increase for 2030 and above rates projected for Canada by then.”
The World Health Organization has predicted a “39 percent rise in the worldwide prevalence of diabetes between 2000 and 2030, but (the study) indicates that this figure might be a gross underestimation,” the commentary on Lancet said.
Obesity, poor diet and a lack of exercise are seen in Type 2 diabetes. Richer diet, especially a lot of carbohydrate like rice, and too little or no exercise are part of the cause of Type 2 diabetes. Some of the complications of this disease is blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, leg gangrene, and death.
The investigators also found that the prevalence of diabetes zoomed from 5.2 percent in 1995 to 8.8 percent in 2005. There are more than 300,000 diabetics in the Philippines.
This is a pandemic, not only an epidemic…and happening faster than we thought. Indeed, it pays to exercise more daily and manage our diet properly, if we are to prevent this debilitating and deadly disease.
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Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, Cardiac Surgeon Emeritus in Northwest Indiana and chairman of cardiac surgery from 1997 to 2010 at Cebu Doctors University Hospital, where he holds the title of Physician Emeritus in Surgery, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Philippine College of Surgeons, and the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society. He is the chairman of the Filipino United Network – USA, a 501(c)(3) humanitarian foundation in the United States. Email: [email protected]
