All posts by nedhamson

Activist, writer, researcher, addicted to sharing information and facts.

Beetroot juice may aid people with coronary heart disease – study | Heart disease | The Guardian

A daily glass of beetroot juice could reduce harmful inflammation in people with coronary heart disease, according to new research.

Coronary heart disease is the most common type of heart disease, the most common cause of heart attacks and the single biggest killer of both and men and women worldwide.

People with the condition have lower levels of nitric oxide, which is produced naturally by the body and is vital for good health. In addition to its role in regulating blood pressure, it has important anti-inflammatory effects.

“Inflammation is vital to protect the body from injury and infection,” said Dr Asad Shabbir, clinical research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, which led the research. “However, in people with coronary heart disease persistent inflammation can exacerbate the furring of the arteries, making their condition worse and increasing their risk of a heart attack.

“Our research suggests that a daily glass of beetroot juice could be one way to get inorganic nitrate into our diet to help to interrupt harmful inflammation.” The research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) was presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester.

Researchers investigated whether a daily beetroot juice high in inorganic nitrate would increase levels of nitric oxide, and whether this would affect inflammation.

 

Source: Beetroot juice may aid people with coronary heart disease – study | Heart disease | The Guardian

Majority of Voters Say Overturning Roe Won’t Impact the Likelihood of Them Voting in Midterm Elections, But 1 in 5 of Voters and 1 in 4 Younger Women Voters Say it Will Motivate Them More And They Will Only Vote For A Pro-Choice Candidate | KFF

More than a third (37%) of voters say that they would be more motivated to vote in November’s Midterm Election if the Supreme Court overturns the Roe v. Wade decision establishing a constitutional right to an abortion, and this group is largely pro-choice and leans Democratic, finds a new KFF Health Tracking Poll focused on abortion issues.

Source: Majority of Voters Say Overturning Roe Won’t Impact the Likelihood of Them Voting in Midterm Elections, But 1 in 5 of Voters and 1 in 4 Younger Women Voters Say it Will Motivate Them More And They Will Only Vote For A Pro-Choice Candidate | KFF

Avian Flu Diary: IJID: Increased Outbreaks of Monkeypox Highlight Gaps in Actual Disease Burden in Sub-Saharan Africa

For most infectious disease specialists, Monkeypox has been on their `short-list’ of zoonotic diseases with epidemic potential for years.  Along with (far worse) pathogens like Nipah, Hendra, Lassa Fever, MERS-CoV, a long list of avian flu subtypes, and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever.
While Monkeypox may have jumped the line, it won’t be the last to do so.

We either figure out how to deal with these exotic pathogens in the places where they are simmering quietly under the radar, or we can wait for them to evolve and show up on our doorstep.

Our choice.   

 

Source: Avian Flu Diary: IJID: Increased Outbreaks of Monkeypox Highlight Gaps in Actual Disease Burden in Sub-Saharan Africa

Experts aim to thread needle on monkeypox messaging to MSM | CIDRAP

Don’t hold back from warning people

Jeff Duchin, MD, health officer for Public Health Seattle–King County, said the CDC is doing a good job toeing the line between alerting MSM groups about the real risks of monkeypox and avoiding stigmatization.

Duchin said in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials have been extremely careful to admit what they don’t know about a virus or to attempt to predict how it will act.

“COVID-19 has shown the importance of acknowledging areas of uncertainty when describing what is known, and in making predictions about, newly emerging pathogens,” Duchin said.

“Monkeypox, on the other hand, is not newly discovered, and there is considerable existing knowledge with it, but it’s probably good to keep an open mind regarding the extent to which the current outbreak may indicate differences in how the virus behaves compared to the past.”

Though monkeypox was first described in humans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1970, infection outside of West and Central Africa has been extremely rare until last month. And cases in endemic countries in Africa are usually linked to eating contaminated bushmeat, or in households. The sexual transmission component of the current outbreak is novel.

Duchin said in Seattle one confirmed case has been closely monitored, with close contacts under surveillance. So far, monkeypox in the area has been limited to a single resident. In King County, the information website on monkeypox is called “Monkeypox in men who have sex with men,” which Duchin said was a deliberate choice.

“We don’t let people hold us back from warning people, and providing them with the best information to protect their health,” Duchin said. “Right from the get go, we have been clear about the risk to MSM.”

Be clear, don’t ‘pussyfoot’

Being clear about that risk is one of the most important messages about monkeypox, according to New Jersey–based risk communication expert Peter Sandman, PhD.

“In the current outbreak, most patients so far are catching it from MSM. But it will almost inevitably spread from MSM, to others who have close contact (especially sexual contact) with MSM, to still others who have close contact (especially sexual contact) with those others,” Sandman said in an email.

“I would urge risk communicators to say all this—and I’d specifically urge them not to let fear of stigmatization deter them from doing so. Fear of stigmatization is an unacceptable reason to withhold or even to soft-pedal this information.

 

Source: Experts aim to thread needle on monkeypox messaging to MSM | CIDRAP

The Internet’s Most Popularly Used Words that Make Headlines Go Viral

MoTEnv — MTE

It is easy to understand the characteristics of viral headlines on the internet if we observe the type of words that appear in the titles of web pages that appear at the top of search engines like Google which directs internet visitors to blogs or websites that receive very high volumes of traffic.

By figuring out what makes different types of content to be so attractive to different internet audiences, one would likely end up noticing that most readers’ attraction to titles and articles could depend a lot on their feelings, emotions, level of interest, and a number of other things or factors that can’t be controlled; regardless of what they may be, the following types of words have been observed to be influential in making headlines go viral:

Words that “point” to a specific person, thought, or thing

Direct examples of these types of words include: “the”, “that”, “this”…

View original post 347 more words

Research shows local GOP content was amplified after Facebook algorithm change – UPI.com

After a Facebook algorithm change, local Republican Party posts in 2019 were shared twice as much as local Democratic posts, according to new research published Wednesday. That happened even though local Democratic parties posted more often on Facebook.

The research paper was published in the journal Research & Politics.

 

Source: Research shows local GOP content was amplified after Facebook algorithm change – UPI.com