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Flight Attendants Have a More Elevated Cancer Risk than the Normal Population (Study)

June 28, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Flight attendant serving coffee and water to the passengers

Flight attendants put themselves at a great cancer risk

Flight attendants expose themselves to plenty of health risks when they sign up for this job. However, the scientific evidence was scarce when it came to certain risks, such as cancer. Now, researchers have finally managed to develop a conclusive study that proves airline workers have a higher risk of developing cancer than other people.

The flight attendant job implies some risks

There are plenty of physical risks that affect flight attendants, including circadian rhythm changes and radiation exposure from the upper atmosphere. However, researchers weren’t able to delve too well into the issue. Their results were even fewer when it came to cancer, so a team of researchers from Harvard University decided to perform a new analysis.

They started the project in 2007, when they had 5,366 flight attendants self-report their health state. Every year, they repeated the observations so, for this study, they used the results from 2014. Afterwards, they used a control group of 2,729 people with a similar social economic situation to the flight attendants.

Flight attendants exhibit a bigger cancer risk regardless of gender

This way, they noticed flight attendants had a much bigger chance of getting cancer than the control group. In female attendants, the risks of breast, uterine, cervical, gastrointestinal, and thyroid cancer were all bigger. There wasn’t too much of a difference between them and regular people, but statistics show such discrepancies cannot occur randomly.

In male attendants, the risk of skin cancer was bigger when it came to both melanoma and non-melanoma tumors. Also, for every five years they spend as flight attendants, these people increase their risk of skin cancer regardless of gender.

This is the best study ever developed that assesses the cancer risk among flight attendants. The results are quite surprising, since these people are usually not exposed to other risks like smoking or obesity. However, there’s something you should keep in mind. The study was observational, so it couldn’t account for any possible causes for this elevated risk. Also, researchers think some factors might have influenced the results, such as the younger age of the control group.

The study was published in the journal Environmental Health.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

FDA Has Approved the First Drug Produced from Cannabis, but It Can’t Go on the Market Yet

June 26, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Bud of a cannabis plant with hairy leaves

As a true medical milestone, FDA has approved its first drug produced from cannabis

The FDA has just marked one of the most remarkable medical milestones in the US history. For the first time ever, the administration has approved a drug produced from cannabis. The drug in question is called Epidiolex and should treat even the most serious forms of childhood epilepsy. However, the drug won’t get on the market too soon, as it first needs approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration.

DEA’s classification keeps cannabis-based drugs from getting on the market

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been dealing with drug classification for many decades. Almost 50 years ago, they included cannabis on the list of Schedule I drugs, next to LSD or heroin. This category should contain drugs that can easily become addictive and which have no medical use.

However, researchers have managed to show cannabis can be useful from a medical point of view. DEA’s classification still keeps them from continuing their research, but there’s another problem. The FDA has just approved the drug produced from cannabis, but it won’t go on the market before DEA changes the classification.

The drug produced from cannabis is the only effective treatment against childhood epilepsy

Epidiolex is a drug produced from cannabis but doesn’t share any symptoms with the drug. It contains cannabidiol (CBD), one of the two components of marijuana. It has no psychoactive effects, as opposed to THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

This drug produced from cannabis is effective against two types of epilepsy, the Lennox-Gastaut and the Dravet syndrome. So far, researchers have found no treatment to work on these diseases, so Epidiolex is a real medical breakthrough. The clinical trials on this drug showed how children who took the drug experienced 40 percent fewer seizures.

This is a strong enough reason for DEA to consider a reclassification. According to its spokesperson, the organization has given serious thought to this decision, but it’s not clear how quickly the drug produced from cannabis will get on the market. However, there’s one more alternative. DEA could reclassify only CBD and leave cannabis where it is.

Image source: Max Pixel

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Woman with Weak Immune System Develops Knee Pain After Getting a Leg Tattoo (Study)

June 20, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Colorful tattoo on a person's right leg

Tattoos might not go well with weak immune systems

Tattoos are quite fashionable, but it might be better not to get one if your immune system is weak. Doctors released this warning while presenting the case of a Scottish woman who had undergone a lung transplant and was suffering from cystic fibrosis. After getting a leg tattoo, the woman started experiencing pain in her knees and thighs.

Tattoos might be dangerous for weak immune symptoms

Tattoos usually come without risks, but they might interact with certain drugs. Although most artists don’t warn people beforehand, doctors are cautioning those who take immunosuppressants. Usually, these drugs are prescribed after transplants or for those with autoimmune diseases. Therefore, they might have quite a big impact on the immune system.

However, it’s quite understandable why these people should think twice about getting tattoos. Since their immune system is weak, they are more prone to infections. Therefore, all these people should get medical advice before any such interventions.

The leg tattoo didn’t interact well with the medication

Unfortunately, the 31-year-old Scottish woman didn’t do it before her leg tattoo. Ten months after the procedure, she ended up in the hospital with terrible pains. The knee of the tattooed leg had swollen and she couldn’t sleep because of the discomfort. This was strange, since she had other tattoos on her other leg and had no trouble with them.

Researchers were quite baffled, since they found no clear origin of the problem. They discovered no bacterial infection, but the MRI scans showed the muscles near the leg tattoo were inflamed. After finding out about the treatment the woman was undergoing, they started putting the pieces together.

However, it’s still not clear the leg tattoo was the direct cause of the inflammation. However, given the moment when the symptoms appeared and the location of the pain, they found no other explanation. The case of the woman was described in the journal BMJ Case Reports.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Toddlers Eat a Lot More Added Sugar than They Should

June 14, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Teaspoon full of sugar

Toddlers should eat less sugar coming from processed foods

Sugar is bad for anyone if consumed excessively, but it has even more damaging effects for children. The CDC decided to take a look at the diet of toddlers and obtained some worrying results. It turns out kids between 6 and 23 months old eat way too much added sugar. In fact, the quantity of sugar they consume exceeds the limits set for adults.

What is added sugar?

Researchers were concerned about the health of American toddlers, so they developed a survey where they interviewed parents with children aged between 6 and 23 months. They asked them questions about the foods they feed their children with. Then, they assessed the quantity of added sugar these foods contain.

These types of sugars come from syrups or other sweeteners added to foods after processing. Most of this sugar is found in soda, cookies, cakes, or ice cream. Therefore, it doesn’t include natural sugar from fruits. Added sugar is one of the biggest risk factors for our health, as it might lead to heart disease, obesity, or diabetes.

For the survey, parents had to write a list of all the things they usually feed their children in a day. Then, researchers put down any product with added sugar, excluding natural sugar coming from fruits or vegetables. This way, they discovered toddlers don’t follow too healthy diets.

Toddlers eat too much added sugar

The results were really worrying, as kids actually consumed way more added sugar than the limit established for adults. Also, the situation became even more dangerous. As kids advanced in age, the quantity of sugar they consumed was even bigger. On any random day, they consumed an average of seven teaspoons of added sugar.

When you compare this to the limits for adults, you’ll see the situation isn’t too bright. Women are advised to eat only 6 teaspoons of sugar per day while, for men, the limit is of 9 teaspoons. Toddlers should actually not eat added sugar at all, so parents should revise these guidelines before choosing a diet for their kids.

The findings will be presented during this’s year meeting of the American Society for Nutrition.

Image source: Pixabay

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

You Can Get $3,500 If You Leave Yourself Infected with the Flu at Hotel Influenza

June 12, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Teddy bear with a crumpled tissue, a vaccine container, and a syringe on it

Researchers are willing to pay you $3,500 if you agree to receive the flu virus

Researchers at St. Louis University want to make you ill, but for a noble purpose. The university has turned the old Water Tower Inn in the city into a research unit where people receive influenza virus on purpose. Nicknamed Hotel Influenza, this center will pay people $3,500 to get exposed to the flu virus and see how they react.

At Hotel Influenza, people are willingly being infected with the flu virus

Hotel Influenza gathers mainly researchers from the university’s Center for Vaccine Development. There, people can receive either the real flu virus or a placebo and, then, researchers will look at what happens in their bodies. They have to stay there for ten days, as the virus is highly contagious. When the period is over, they can go back home after receiving $3,500 for agreeing with the experiment.

This type of study actually has a long and complicated history. About 100 years ago, researchers came up with the idea for the human challenge study. This consisted of exposing people directly to the disease virus. Of course, this hasn’t always been safe, but the recent development of technology has made the method better for using.

People are still skeptical about such human challenge studies

The first time when researchers attempted a Hotel Influenza experiment was in 1936. Two doctors from Russia selected 72 healthy volunteers and exposed them to the flu virus. This way, they discovered the entrance point of the virus in the organism was through the lower part of the respiratory tract.

However, there was a problem with such scientific trials, and it seems to persist. People started debating if it’s ethical to expose healthy people to different viruses. The Hotel Influenza experiment should be safe, since people have to consent to the infection and they also receive a monetary reward. Such human challenge studies are still frowned upon, and they come with plenty of guidelines and restrictions from WHO.

Image source: Max Pixel

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Moderate Drinkers Take Fewer Sick Days Off Work than Non-Drinkers

June 6, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Wine glass on a blurry background

Non-drinkers seem to be most likely to take sick days related to mental health issues

Not drinking alcohol doesn’t make you less likely to take sick days, suggests a new study. Researchers from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health were curious about the correlation between drinking habits and missing work, so they discovered an interesting phenomenon. Both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers were more likely to get sick, while moderate drinkers took fewer days off.

Not drinking alcohol might keep you from going to work

Many people tend to brag if they don’t consume alcohol, so Finnish researchers decided to see if this has any influence on their health. Therefore, they looked at how alcohol consumption influenced illness among workers in three countries: UK, Finland, and France. There was an impact indeed, but not how you would expect it.

Those who were more likely to take sick days were both non-drinkers and heavy drinkers. Many people used to think not drinking is a lot better than moderate drinking, but this study proves the contrary. The results showed drinking played an important role in the mental health of the employees.

Moderate drinkers were the least likely to take sick days

For instance, non-drinkers had 50 percent higher chances of taking sick days for issues related to their mental health. However, the same correlation applied for other conditions as well. Among other diseases, there were also digestive and respiratory disorders and injuries of the muscles and bones.

Interestingly enough, the big amount of sick days was present even among people who drank really small quantities of alcohol. This way, researchers identified a low limit for sake drinking. For men, this is of about 34 units per week, while for women the limit is of 17 units per week.

However, take these findings with a grain of salt. The study was merely observational and looked at the correlation between alcohol and sick days. It didn’t take into account other diseases caused by alcohol consumption, as some guidelines might indicate much smaller quantities of alcohol as safe.

Image source: Max Pixel

Filed Under: Lifestyle & Health

Strange Trans Neptunian Object Might Show the Existence of Planet Nine Is Possible (Study)

May 18, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Planet Nine orbiting the Sun

The strange orbit of the planet might make the existence of Planet Nine more plausible

Researchers have been denying the existence of a ninth planet, as they said there was no scientific evidence to prove it. Now, they might have stumbled upon some pretty convincing facts that might make it possible for Planet Nine to exist. The evidence comes from a Trans Neptunian object with a strange orbit, meaning that a ninth planet could have distorted it.

The Trans Neptunian object has a weird orbit

Researchers have been really skeptical about the existence of a ninth planet in the Solar System. Conspiracy theorists used it to predict a possible end of the world, but there was no solid scientific evidence to show it was coming. Now, they have found something that might prove Planet Nine actually exists.

The Trans Neptunian object in question is 2015 BP519, and it performs an orbit around the Sun. However, researchers noticed something different. While all planets in the Solar System have different orbits, they still perform the movement around the Sun at the same angle. This object does at a different angle. This makes it the most extreme object of its type ever studied.

The existence of Planet Nine might explain that strange orbit

Researchers were baffled by the phenomenon, so they decided to perform some computer models. This way, they were trying to find out why the orbit of the object was different. Here, the interesting part comes in. By modelling the Solar System with only eight planets, the orbit looked different than it does. Afterwards, they made another theoretical simulation where they introduced Planet Nine as well. This produced the exact orbit as the one performed by the Trans Neptunian object.

Of course, conspiracy theorists shouldn’t get too excited. This isn’t proof that Planet Nine actually exists. However, the situation makes it more likely for it to exist than before. The study on the phenomenon is available in the pre-print archive arXiv.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Science

A Team of Gamers Explain Spooky Action and Disprove Einstein’s Theories (Study)

May 10, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Albert Einstein against a black background

An experiment involving gamers could explain the spooky action theory and quantum entanglement

An interesting experiment involving 100,000 gamers successfully proved Einstein wrong. We are talking about the famous theory about the phenomenon called spooky action at a distance, which already enters the field of quantum mechanics. These volunteering gamers showed quantum entanglement worked, and also offered a possible explanation for it.

Scientists explained the spooky action theory through games and random numbers

Spooky action at a distance means that particles might issue an influence upon each other even when they’re really far away from each other. However, Einstein thought only one small part of it was a matter of quantum mechanics. Instead, he was convinced there must be some other explanation that better suits the phenomenon.

Researchers wanted to test the quantum hypothesis and performed some demonstrations of a phenomenon called quantum entanglement. However, they still couldn’t find an explanation, so Einstein’s unknown variables sounded plausible. Fortunately, the team of gaming volunteers brought a new light on the spooky action theory.

They played a series of games which generated random numbers, so there weren’t any variables that could influence the phenomenon. Afterwards, scientists took the numbers and used them for a series of quantum tests performed in different labs. Then, they measured the entangled particles that were involved in the process. Therefore, some truly random factors could generate some measurable particles.

The results challenge Einstein’s views of the universe

This spooky action experiment brought some solid evidence against Einstein’s local realism theory. This states that an action performed in a certain direction won’t produce a result in a different location. Judging from this theory, it means the universe is always the same, both when we’re looking at it and when we don’t.

However, quantum physics and mechanism function from a different principle. This means we might use quantum theory to explain how the universe is working, and everything happens randomly. There are no hidden factors or variables that might influence the final results.

“We showed that a key property of entanglement in space, so-called monogamy of entanglement, does not hold in the temporal domain,” say the researchers.

This landmark study on the spooky action theory and quantum entanglement was published in the journal Nature.

Image source: Pixabay

Filed Under: Science

For the First Time, Researchers Spot Helium in an Exoplanet Atmosphere (Study)

May 3, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

WASP exoplanet orbiting its parent star

This is the first time when scientists spot helium outside the Solar System

The Hubble Space Telescope helped astronomers make a landmark discovery outside our Solar System. By using the powerful lenses of the telescope, they could spot traces of helium near WASP-107b. The cosmic body in question is an exoplanet, and it’s the first time when researchers spot the chemical element beyond the boundaries of the Solar System.

Scientists spotted helium in the atmosphere of an exoplanet

The European Space Agency released news about the remarkable discovery made with Hubble. By using Wide Field Camera 3, they could take a close look at the atmosphere of the exoplanet. This is how they observed this atmosphere contained traces of helium.

The observation was both unique and surprising, as helium is the second most common element in the universe. However, it was only spotted in the Solar System so far. The discovery is remarkable from another point of view as well. If Hubble could offer such good images of WASP-107b’s atmosphere, it means we can expand the study to other cosmic objects as well.

WASP-107b is an unusual exoplanet

WASP-107b is part of the Virgo constellation, at about 200 light-years away from our planet. Scientists described it as a super Neptune. The description comes from its properties, as the exoplanet has about the same diameter as Jupiter, but only a small part of its mass. As a result, it has one of the lowest densities every observed.

Its atmosphere is interesting as well. Given its proximity to the star, it performs a complete orbit in only 5.7 days. Therefore, it reaches temperatures of 932 degrees Fahrenheit which are definitely not friendly for life. The fact that it also contained helium was extremely interesting to observe.

Now that Hubble could take a look at the atmosphere of WASP-107b, it’s time to look at other exoplanets as well. Before this study came out, researchers used to look at the ultraviolet light present in atmospheres. This was a bit tough, since our own atmosphere blocks most of this radiation. Now, things have evolved and we might make more valuable discoveries.

The study on helium in WASP-107b’s atmosphere was published in the journal Nature.

Image source:  Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Science

Researchers Found a Pitch Black Planet that Absorbs All Light (Study)

April 26, 2018 By Joseph Brown Leave a Comment

Pitch black planet absorbing light from a star

The pitch black planet was hardly noticeable even with an advanced telescope

By using the advanced Kepler Space Telescope, a group of NASA scientists managed to spot a really interesting cosmic body. The object in question is a pitch black planet that can absorb about 99 percent of the light it receives from nearby stars. This planet got the name WASP-104b, and entered the Hot Jupiter category.

The pitch black planet absorbs almost all the light it gets

About 470 light-years away, scientists observed something odd. Even if they studied the constellation, they overlooked the pitch black planet that camouflaged itself perfectly. Instead of reflecting the light it received from its parent star, it reflected almost all of it. As a result, there was almost nothing to be seen.

The planet is situated in the Leo constellation, and researchers added it on the Hot Jupiter list. This means it is a gas giant of relatively the same size as Jupiter. However, it sits only 2.6 million miles away from its parent star, which makes it scorching hot. At such a distance, it only takes a few days to perform an orbit around the star.

The planet is a Hot Jupiter that sits really close to its star

However, WASP-104b is a lot more remarkable for being a pitch black planet. This massive blackness prevented the researchers from spotting it in the first place, as it reflects almost no light. Moreover, there is a layer of haze that surrounds it, making things even more impossible.

This is quite odd, since most planets reflect at least a bit of light. However, the fact that it’s a Hot Jupiter partially explains the phenomenon. These planets are usually a lot darker than others, but a pitch black planet that absorbs almost all light is truly remarkable.

Researchers blame the small distance between WASP-104b and its star, as this is the most logical explanation. Also, its atmosphere rich in alkaline elements might also contribute to the blackness. Researchers also published a study that went online on the arXiv platform.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Filed Under: Science

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