June 20th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs, News
Tags: Genetics, News, Parenting, Reproductive Endocrinology
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I was perusing Dr. Hsien Hsein Lei’s blog and noticed a link to a pretty interesting tool. Dr. Lei describes it as a “low tech paternity test” and it’s a probability calculator that relies on 3 traits: blood type, eye color, and ear lobe type. Yep, it’s sometimes possible to exclude certain father candidates based on these traits.
Apparently attached earlobes (that don’t hang) are a recessive trait, so if a child has unattached earlobes, both parents can’t have attached earlobes. And as far as eye color is concerned, two blue eyed parents can’t have a brown eyed child – so there’s some opportunity for exclusion there (I was interested to see that two dark brown eyed parents can have a blue eyed child, though it’s rather unlikely).
Did you know about the genetics of ear lobes? I learn something new every day.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 19th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
Tags: Animals, Infectious Disease, International, Milk, News
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This was one of the strangest news items in my inbox this week. Apparently, British cattle are catching tuberculosis from the local badger population. Now, the only thing that I thought the two animals had in common was their coloring… but I guess they must hang out together with sufficient frequency to pass on TB infections.
In fact, one BBC News report suggests that farms with larger hedges had lower rates of cattle TB infections… presumably because the hedges kept the badgers from fraternizing as much with the cows. This finding provides a nice alternative to badger culling, a practice that the animal rights folks do not endorse.
But what does this mean for humans? Well, according to the CDC, cattle TB (caused by a special strain of mycobacterium – M. bovis) has been virtually eradicated in the US due to herd culling and milk pasteurization methods. Cattle TB doesn’t tend to infect the lungs, so it’s less transmissible via droplets and such. So even if you’re in England and Bessy the cow sneezes on you, you probably won’t catch TB. But if you drink Bessy’s unpasteurized milk or cheese products, you’ve got yourself a risky situation. As for badgers – they’re not very affectionate anyway, so I wouldn’t try to befriend them.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 14th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
Tags: Animals, Dermatology, Infectious Disease
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This is a really gory series of photos (via KevinMD) of what happened to a man’s hand after he was bitten by a spider. The venom created a necrotic reaction that burst open his skin and caused a gaping wound to appear by day 10.
What can you do to avoid a similar fate? Well, first of all, most spider bites aren’t poisonous. It looks like the man in these photos was bitten by a brown recluse spider – a nasty arachnid found in the central to midwestern United States. As their name suggests, these spiders are non aggressive and tend to remain secluded – and they don’t bite unless you disturb them or handle them in some way.
But if you are bitten, there’s no good treatment (no anti-venom). Ice, steroids, and antibiotics can be used to reduce inflammation and protect against bacterial super infections. But basically, the severity of your reaction to the venom depends upon your body’s personal sensitivity. Some people don’t mount a serious response, and others, like the unhappy fellow above, have a violent tissue-ravaging reaction. Scary stuff.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
June 14th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
Tags: Beauty, Dermatology, News, Plastic Surgery, Research, Women's Health
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It’s funny how cultures become obsessed with certain physical attributes. In the middle ages warts confirmed the identity of witches, a gap between the front teeth was considered pleasing, and a “heart shaped face” was the epitome of beauty. This past century we’ve vacillated between pleasantly plump to “rail thin” as a standard of loveliness… and in recent years women have become preoccupied with a new menace: cellulite.
Of course, no one had even noticed cellulite until the French coined the term 150 years ago. And unhappily that plague crossed the Atlantic in the 1960s, terrorizing pleasantly plump beauties from that day forward.
An entire industry has sprouted up to combat this dimpled foe – everything from massage to liposuction to caffeinated lotions claim that they will restore a smooth appearance to irregular thighs. Unfortunately, those promises are all empty.
Yes, that’s right – there is no research to suggest that any cellulite treatment has anything but the most modest of effects. The bottom line is that dimply skin is determined by your genes – same as your eye color – and that the majority of women have some degree of cellulite no matter how thin they are. Sure, estrogen can play a role – but basically there’s no escaping estrogen as a woman!
So if you’re one of those people who is a little more dimply than average – here’s what you can do:
1. Wear clothes that cover the dimples. Spanx and biker shorts can be worn underneath trousers and longer skirts to give a smoother appearance.
2. Adjust the lighting in your bedroom and bathroom – diffuse light doesn’t reflect shadows from skin imperfections as much. It’s amazing how lighting can emphasize (or de-emphasize) cellulite.
3. Stay fit and tone your body as much as possible. That way if the rest of your body is lean and firm, the cellulite won’t be that big a deal.
4. Recognize that you will always have cellulite. It’s not your fault, you didn’t cause it and you can’t solve it. Don’t waste your money on creams and treatments that don’t work.
5. Remember that the vast majority of guys don’t even notice cellulite (it’s virtually invisible due to their fixation on other anatomical parts).
6. Blame it on the French. If you fixate on your cellulite you are letting them win! Show those French your best laissez-faire attitude by completely ignoring this “disease” that they concocted.
I vote that we go back to the days before the invention of cellulite and live a carefree, confident existence.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
May 29th, 2007 by Dr. Val Jones in News
Tags: Infectious Disease, News, Ophthalmology
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There’s a new contact lens solution scare this week. Last year it was fungus, this year it’s parasites. Apparently there has been an increase in amoebic infections in the eyes of those who use a type of moisturizing contact lens solution. These amoebas are pretty common (and relatively harmless?) in the water supply, but put them in your eyes with a few moisturizing drops and you’ve got yourself a dangerous infection that can even result in blindness. Scientists are puzzled as to why this mixture might increase the risk for infection – some speculate that the moisturizing chemical sticks to the amoebas and keeps them in the eye (rather than having them drop out in your tears). But at this point, no one really knows why there have been increased infection rates, or what the contact lens solution has to do with it.
I guess my advice would be – never put tap water in your eyes or on your contact lenses, and switch to a different brand of contact lens solution than Advanced Medical Optics, Inc.’s Complete Moisture Plus until further notice.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
