Everybody’s probably heard that it appears that summer weather will impede the spread of the virus and that, in general, the virus prefers cooler and drier weather. As the article below makes clear, the dryness of the air seems to be more central than the coolness. Also, it is worth pointing out that in many…

This is too cool not to share:  

According to Wikipedia: Metabolomics is the scientific study of chemical processes involving metabolites, the small molecule substrates, intermediates and products of metabolism. Specifically, metabolomics is the “systematic study of the unique chemical fingerprints that specific cellular processes leave behind”, the study of their small-molecule metabolite profiles.[1] The metabolome represents the complete set of metabolites in a biological cell, tissue, organ or organism,…

Research published in 2014 showed that the correlation between meat consumption and coronary artery disease was weak. It got a lot of press. What got less press was when the authors were forced to publicly correct their errors a short while later: From https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/scientists-fix-errors-controversial-paper-about-saturated-fats: When a paper published on 17 March questioned whether fats from…

Read on www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/app-users-beware-most-healthcare-76025/ Although this article is unnecessarily alarmist, The information in it is useful to both health app developers and app users. Recent guidance from the federal department of health and human services has clarified why most fitness apps do not trigger HIPAA rules. Of course, the Trump administration tends to side with business…

From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103185/: Compared to non-users, those who had used meditation in the past 12 months were more likely to be 40–64 years, female, non-Hispanic White, living in the West, at least college-educated, not in a relationship, diagnosed with one or more chronic conditions, smoking, consuming alcohol and physically active. — Read on www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5103185/ This is…

I heard about this while listening to an audiobook this morning. The audiobook is Seven Myths of Education by a woman named Daisy Christodoulou and you can listen to it on the Scribd app. I’m currently a big fan of her work. Today’s chapter mentioned John Hattie’s work on determining the effect size of various…

New research reveals a potential way for how parents’ experiences could be passed to their offspring’s genes. The research was published today, 25 January, in the journal Science. Epigenetics is a system that turns our genes on and off. The process works by chemical tags, known as epigenetic marks, attaching to DNA and telling a…

I reviewed a few small studies today about the effects of body care products on the skin microbiome. All three of the articles covered the use of anti-perspirant and deodorant on the armpit. The results are not consistent between the three studies, with one exception. The regular use of body care products dramatically alters the…

Most of the discussion in health circles about the microbiome centers on the gut. However, most people are also aware that there is a skin microbiome covering the entire exterior of the body. Have you ever wondered if there is a way that you can feed the skin microbiota directly? I was wondering about this…