We talked about sex in class and sexually transmitted infections, (HPV) but we never really talked about the dangers of sex beyond infections, as in death.

NO, not by a disease, but by an allergic reaction. The first culprit would be latex, as in condoms. According to the American Latex Allergy Association, less than 1% of United States citizens suffer from a latex allergy. This group of people need to be sure to have condoms made with no latex, as to avoid the reaction.

Seems easy enough right? Can’t say the same for people with allergic reactions to Brazil Nuts.

“BrazilNut1” by Taken by Deathworm at en.wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia.

Brazil nuts are the only know allergen that can spread through semen. So if my partner eats Brazil nuts and then we have sexual contact, I can still have a reaction that could lead to death. As far as I know, Brazil nuts are the only allergen that has this effect.

So be careful about what you, and your partner eat!

We talked in class about Bisphenol A, or what we call BPA and the question came up, what is it? The answer seems pretty vauge, because in my research, I still don’t have a clear enough picture of what it is and how it is harmful. So I ask, does it matter and why should I care?

BPA is a used mainly for making hard plastics: our water bottles, tupperware, baby bottles things like that, but it’s also used for making less expected materials, CD’s, dental fillings and receipt papers from the store. According to Wikipedia, Bpa is used in most food and beverage cans, to keep the food away from the aluminum. This means that we are exposed constantly to the effects of this .

So why is it harmful?  Bpa was originally created to be an artificial estrogen, but was significantly less effective then the current one that was being used. then being used in the way we are familiar with it, in 1997 it tested and adverse connections were found in lab rats. In 2009  Consumer Reports posted an analysis of BPA, reporting that the content humans were exposed to exceeded the FDA recommendations. Depending on the stage at which harmful levels are consumed, BPA could effect, at a perinatal level, sweet and salty taste preferences. At an adult level, BPA could modify insulin and sensitivity. Some studies have show a connection between BPA and the malfunction of the thyroid. In animals, BPA has been linked to testicular tumors and leukemia but the evidence was not strong enough to provide statistical significance. Animal models exposed at the perinatal stage have shown signs of altered breast development and risks of breast cancer development at later ages.

In all of the studies I read, none of them were able to give me evidence that BPA actually did something (in the sugary drink study, the consequences were clear that too much soda was bad). One study suggested BPA had links to obesity, but if BPA is in cans and plastics and I over eat things that come out of cans and plastics, is reverse causation more likely a culprit? I’d say yes!

I had to ask myself, if I was buying a water bottle and there were 2 bottles side by side, same price, would I get the BPA free version? Sure I would. It’s not costing me anything, and the science has yet to show me evidence that it is harmful. If the bottles had different prices, I would go with the cheap one.

Sleepy, bored, hot, or a power move; all theoretical reasons we yawn, but which one is it?

Some say that yawning is tool our body uses to control the temperature in the brain. Andrew Gallup and Gary Hack, both from theUniversity of Maryland, have studied the effects of yawning on rats and found that the temperature increased and decreased with yawns, solidifying the theory… at least in rats. A test that was run on humans showed 2 women that we yawning for up to 45 minutes at a time as many at 15 times a day. These women had temperature regulation issues in their brain. Much like the rat experiment, these women took oral temperatures before and after a yawn spell and yawning reduced their temperature.

(baby yawns in utero)

Others believe that yawning is an innate skill that we just do. It’s a biological program that we can’t control. I asked some of my coworkers to yawn and they all laughed at me, then sat with their mouths open waiting, no luck. That was, by no means, a great experiment model, but it showed me first-hand that yawning is an unconscious behavior. In fact, despite my best efforts, I have yawned more than 10 times since I started working on this blog post.

There are other scientists that believe yawning is a power move, much like the poses we saw in class, that is used to show dominance. This tactic is used often in the animal world, especially with primates, the animal that many believe humans evolved from. It’s all in the teeth with primates, as teeth are a sign of strength and the stronger teeth the more dominate and the more likely to be the alpha male.

What might be my favorite theory is that yawning is not necessarily contagious, but more a form of social bonding, because who wants to be lonely? We yawn when others yawn because if one person is calm enough to yawn it diffuses stress and brings calm, allowing the next person to relax and peace spreads, according to this theory.

So I suppose that if you yawned while reading this it could be because my writing calmed you and you are at peace, or your brain is over-heating and it needs some fresh air. Either way, I hope it isn’t because you are trying to threaten me… I’m just trying to pass this class!

My grandma used to always say that cleanliness is next to godliness, but are we so clean that we are damaging our immune systems?

Some theories suggest that our cleaner environments and heavier use of antibiotics basically make our immune systems lazy. Our immune systems used to have to fight all sorts of life threatening illnesses like smallpox, bubonic plague and polio. Now that we have vaccines and these illnesses are eradicated what are we left to fight? According to WebMD, our cleanliness is leaving our immune systems to fight “harmless proteins” like pollen, foods and animals. This could be one reason that the rate of food allergies increased 18% between the years 1997 and 2007[i].

So let’s compare, by looking at developed, developing and underdeveloped countries we can look for patterns and relationships between cleanliness and allergies.  According to the National Library of Medicine, 1 in 5 children from industrialized countries suffer from an allergy related disease.[ii] Developing countries have similar patterns showing, with more than 15% of children in the UK showing a tendency toward allergies. In underdeveloped areas the health standards are much lower and the children are already fighting serious illness but allergies are not an issue that they deal with often.

A study done by Hesselmar, Hicke-Roberts and Wennergren concluded that families that hand wash their dishes, as opposed to using a dishwasher, report fewer occurrences of allergies[iii]. They point to less effective sanitizing of dishes increases tolerance to exposure to outside infections.

Please understand, I am in no way saying that we should start eating off of dirty plates and not washing our hands. I am just saying that being OVERLY CLEAN could increase your risk of allergies and allergy related illness.

SOURCES:

[i] http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db10.htm

[ii] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2841828/

[iii] Hesselmar, B., A. Hicke-Roberts, and G. Wennergren. “Allergy in Children in Hand Versus Machine Dishwashing.” Pediatrics 135.3 (2015): 590-97.