For The Union-Tribune
Dad’s gut feeling
Your microbiome is the collection of all of the microbes (bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc.) that live on and in you. It profoundly affects your health and, studies increasingly show, the health of your children.
Past research in mice has found that maternal gut bacteria play a role in offspring behavior and placental growth during pregnancy. Now, scientists have looked at paternal influences.
A new study reports that altering the gut microbiome of male mice negatively affected the health and lifespan of their offspring through epigenetic changes in sperm. Offspring of males whose gut microbiome had been disrupted by antibiotics suffered from impaired gestation and metabolic dysfunctions.
Body of knowledge
The average talker sprays about 300 microscopic saliva droplets a minute. That works out to 2.5 droplets per word.
Get me that. Stat!
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, during July 2021 through December 2023, one half of teenagers (ages 12 to 17) spent four or more hours on daily screen time, such as phones, TV and computers.
Counts
34 — Percentage of teenagers who say they’ve been bullied in the past 12 months
Source: National Center for Health Statistics
Stories for the waiting room
There’s a right way and a wrong way to measure blood pressure. The latter can lead to overdiagnosis. If you’re sitting on a paper-covered table when your blood pressure is taken, that’s the wrong way. You should be seated in a chair with your arm supported on a desk or other surface, keeping the cuff aligned with your heart.
Measuring blood pressure with a patient’s arms in their laps or hanging by their sides tends to overestimate blood pressure by as much as 4 mm Hg for the top number (systolic, or when blood pumps) number and almost 7 mm Hg for the bottom number (diastolic, or when the heart rests between beats), according to new research.
Study authors estimated that improper arm position could mean 16 percent of U.S. adults, or 40 million Americans, may be mistakenly diagnosed with hypertension using a cutoff of 140 mmHg and higher, and 22 percent, or 54 million people, would be misclassified using the lower cutoff of 130 mmHg. That could be the difference between a prescription for a hypertension-lowering medication or a recommendation to make lifestyle-only changes, reports STAT.
Phobia of the week
Atelophobia — fear of imperfection or making a mistake. I won’t atell if you don’t.
Hypochondriac’s guide
Cornu cutaneum are hard, conical projections made from compacted ketatin (most notably the stuff of fingernails and hair) that grow out of the skin. They are also known as cutaneous horns because, well, they can resemble an animal’s horn, but they may appear anywhere on the body.
Typically, they are benign tumors, often prompted by overexposure to the sun, but sometimes emerge from premalignant or malignant skin lesions. They are not true horns, because they do not grow directly from the skull. One exception: rhino horns are also hardened keratin growing from the skin.
Observation
“Early to rise and early to bed, makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead.”
— American humorist James Thurber (1894-1961)
Medical history
This week in 1982, Dr. William C. DeVries replaced the diseased heart of 61-year-old Barney Clark with the Jarvik-7, the first permanent artificial heart ever used for a human patient. Barney Clark survived for 112 days, dying from complications. Only four other patients received the Jarvik-7 heart over the following three years. The second, William Schroeder, lived 620 days, dying in 1986 at age 54. Other patients received the artificial heart only as a temporary device while awaiting heart transplants.
Med school
Q: At what age can babies begin to shed real tears?
a) immediately after birth
b) 2 weeks old
c) 1 month
d) 6 months
A: b. Around two weeks, a newborn’s lacrimal glands will begin increasing production of tears, making it possible to see them, though it’s usually one month or later that the waterworks are able to flow in earnest.
Curtain calls
The English philosopher and stateman Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was outside experimenting to see if stuffing a chicken carcass with snow would preserve its meat. He developed pneumonia and died, since there were no treatments at the time to cure Bacon.
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
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