The Four-eyed Journal » Health

On a diet? Gadgets can be used to measure food portions to monitor diet and intake

jhay — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 02:07:03 +0000

It’s summer time here in the Philippines and while most students are on their final weeks of exams and classes and simply waiting to march up on stage to get their hard-earned diplomas, a lot of us are already planning their vacation.

With the mention of summer of vacation, beaches, resorts and other getaways where there’s plenty of sun would be the staple. However, some are less worried about where to go but are more worried about what to wear. For those on the heavier side of the scale and those watching their weight in order to strut their best when they put on that pair of bikinis or trunks the urge to keep tabs on what they eat and how much they eat just keeps stronger and stronger.

There’s good news for all, there’s an easy way to keep track of the food portions and servings you take in a day without having to memorize the metric system or carry around measuring cups with you.

The Seattle Times’ Janet K. Keeler has a neat technique of using gadgets like iPods and thumb drives so commonplace nowadays to get an idea of how much food you are eating:

Pod nano: 1 ounce of chocolate

First-generation iPod shuffle: 1 ounce of cheese

Smartphone: 3 ounces of chicken, meat or fish

One side of headphones: 1 cup of cereal, soup, vegetables or cut-up fruit

Pedometer: 1/4 cup of raisins or other dried fruit

Small thumb drive: 1 tablespoon of salad dressing, sour cream, mayonnaise

AC power adapter: 1/2 cup ice cream or frozen yogurt

Two earbuds: 1 teaspoon of olive oil or peanut butter

CD: 1 slice of bread

Computer mouse: 1 baked potato

You thought it was an app for the iPhone or Android? It would be cool to have one though the portion-equivalency chart for gadgets above is a quick and easy to use tool in doing just that, measuring the amount of food you eat every time you grab a bite.

Now if one CD is the equivalent of a slice of bread, does that make a hard drive two or three slices? How about an iPad 2? Is that the equivalent of a small pizza or huge bar of chocolate?

Image by whatelydude

What happens when a human drinks seawater? - A lesson from Discovery Channel

jhay — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 03:56:46 +0000

Seawater all around, but none for drinking. Image by egroj.

If you’ve seen the various survival shows on the Discovery Channel, you already know the answer to this question. From the various how-to-survive shows like Man vs Wild, Survivor Man to the ones that retell the tales of those who survived disasters at sea one thing has been taught to us all: seawater is not safe for human consumption.

The taste of seawater is a dead giveaway: too much salt can damage the human body.

Remember that seawater is 3.5% or (35 g/L, or 599 mM) salt or dissolved minerals¹. If you drink seawater in a desperate attempt to survive out in the ocean you would just do more harm to your body and increase your chances of dying instead of living long enough until rescue arrives.

This would lead to Hypernatremia (hyper= too much + natr= sodium + emia=in the blood) a condition of having too much salt and too little water in your body². Simply because your body will work extra hard to get rid of the increased excess salt. This process requires water and since your body is the only source of water with lower salt concentrations, you would actually need more water to survive. It would make your situation much worse than before.

Dehydration would worsen and your chances of making it out alive is greatly decreased. That’s one of the perils of being lost at sea, you’re surrounded by water and yet not a single drop is readily safe for drinking.

Image by egroj

Footnotes:

salinity measurement is a total of all the salts that are dissolved in the water. Although 35 parts per thousand is not very concentrated (the same as 3.5 parts per hundred, o/o, or percent) the water in the oceans tastes very salty.Source
This water loss can occur from illnesses with vomiting or diarrhea, excessive sweating from exercise or fever, or from drinking fluid that has too high concentrations of salt. Source.

Jeans protect you from snake bites

jhay — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:16:07 +0000

It’s hard to tell whether a snake has a poisonous bite or not and the scary part is you’d only get to find out once it has bitten you.

Farmers may have known this for years because jeans are part of the standard attire when working in the fields, especially in places where the grass and brush is thick, and it’s in this places where you’d most likely find a snake. So besides being able to stand the wear and tear of farm work, the tough and heavy cloth of jeans provide some protection from snake bites.

This has been confirmed by scientists in California as reported in Reuters:

Drs. Shelton S. Herbert and William K. Hayes used latex gloves filled with saline to simulate a human appendage, then exposed the gloves to bites from small and large southern Pacific rattlesnakes. Some of the latex “limbs” were covered in a layer of denim.

The researchers found that compared with the jeans-less gloves, those covered in denim absorbed about two-thirds less venom from the rattlesnake bites. Instead, a high proportion of the venom “spilled harmlessly” onto the denim, the researchers report in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Now those who are feeling a bit more adventurous now better hold for a second before strutting your tight-fitting skinny jeans and heading out into the bush. You’d get more protection from loose-fitting, baggy jeans because they provide more space between your legs and the snake as compared to a pair of jeans that highlight your, ehem, assets.

But the problem now is, you’d be hard pressed to find baggy jeans as the skinny ones are the type in fashion. Perhaps mom or dad has kept some of their old pair in the closet?

Another thing I wonder about is, if jeans provide a layer of protection from snake bites, how come most wildlife shows still wear the khaki jeans or shorts?

Health Gadget: H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

jhay — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:00:42 +0000

H1N1 Destroying UV Wand

In case you have forgotten, the H1N1 virus is still out there and it’s still a big threat to us all. So let’s not put our guards down and just continue the preventive measures we’ve become accustomed to by now like frequent hand-washing, covering our mouth while coughing and staying healthy.

Fortunately, we can all be geeky and healthy at the same time thanks to this cool new gadget called the H1N1 Destroying UV Wand.

This UV wand eliminates the H1N1 virus from surfaces using safe UV-C light–the same technology trusted to sanitize hospital surfaces. Tests performed by an independent antimicrobial testing laboratory showed the wand destroyed 99.98% of the H1N1 virus after a five-second exposure when held 3/4″ above the contaminated surface. Also capable of killing MRSA, mold, and dust mites, the UV-C light penetrates viral and bacterial membranes and destroys their DNA, rendering the microorganisms incapable of reproduction and survival. Unlike liquid disinfectants, UV-C light can sanitize keyboards, upholstered furniture, cell phones, or any delicate surface that harbors germs. The cordless wand shuts off automatically if the light is turned upward. Operates for 90 minutes after an eight-hour charge via AC. 24″ L x 5″ W x 2 1/2″ D. (3 lbs.)

Sounds like something out of science fiction right? Well, for just $69.95 you could use it right away to disinfect and kill those dreaded bacteria, molds, dust mites and of course the H1N1 virus.

I wonder what’s next? wireless laser mice that measure your blood sugar and blood pressure?

Anyone interested in this gadget? What are your thoughts?

Nano particles used to fight ovarian cancer

jhay — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:53:33 +0000

Nanotechnology is really an exciting field. One that has tons upon tons of potential in advancing the human race. One of the most viable uses of nanotech is medicine and in particular fighting cancer.

Now, women have another reason to be hopeful against ovarian cancer as immunologists from Dartmouth Medical school have found a way to use nanoparticles in reprogramming cells that have been co-opted by tumor cells to turn back to the ‘good side’ and kill the tumor cells.

The Dartmouth work focuses on dendritic cells–an immune cell particularly abundant in the ovarian cancer environment. Dendritic cells are phagocytes–the soldiers of the immune system that gobble up bacteria and other pathogens, but ovarian cancer has co-opted them for its own use, he continued. “So we were trying to restore the attributes of these dendritic cells–the good guys; they become Trojan horses.”

Cancer is more than tumor cells; many other circulating cells including the dendritic phagocytes converge to occupy nearby space. The dendritic cells around ovarian cancer scoop up the nanocomplexes, composed of a polymer and small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules to silence their immunosuppressive activity.

Nanoparticle incorporation transforms them from an immunosuppressive to an immunostimulatory cell type at tumor locations, provoking anti-tumor responses and also directly killing tumor cells. The effect is particularly striking with an siRNA designed to silence the gene responsible for making an immune protein called PD-L.

However, the researches offer a word of caution in connection to this new technique. Since it activates anti-tumor responses including inflammation, inducing such a response to an already weakened cancer patient may have negative effects.

Further clinical tests using sample human ovarian cancer cells suggested the feasibility of this new technique. Once more, science has come to the aid of man in helping him fight cancer.

Reference:

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (2009, July 16). Trojan Horse For Ovarian Cancer: Nanoparticles Turn Immune System Soldiers