Nyet to Neti Pots

Neti pots (Mercury News/AP)

When the hay fever gets intense and when the pills and inhalers don't provide relief, allergy sufferers can rinse their nasal passages with saline solution. However, the appliance of choice, the neti pot, now comes with a warning from the CDC: [bold added]

Neti pots are one of the better known tools of nasal rinsing. They look like small teapots with long spouts, and usually are made of ceramic or plastic.

Users fill them with a saline solution, then pour the liquid in one nostril. It comes out the other, draining the nasal passage of allergens and other bothersome contaminants...

More than a decade ago, health officials linked U.S. deaths from a brain-eating amoeba — named Naegleria fowleri — to nasal rinsing. More recently, they started to note nasal rinsing as a common theme in illnesses caused by another microscopic parasite, Acanthamoeba.

Acanthamoeba causes different kinds of illness but is still dangerous, with a 85% fatality rate in reported cases...

This amoeba can be found naturally all over the environment — in lakes, rivers, seawater and soil.

It can cause diseases of the skin and sinuses, and can infect the brain, where it can cause a deadly form of inflammation. The microorganism also has been connected to non-fatal, but sight-threatening, eye infections, sometimes through contaminated contact lens solution.

U.S. health officials have identified about 180 infections from the single-cell organism since the first one was diagnosed in 1956.

In the vast majority of cases, researcher don’t know exactly how people became infected. But in reviewing cases in recent decades, CDC researchers increasingly received information that a number of the cases had done nasal rinsing, Haston said.

Research also has indicated it’s common in tap water. A study done in Ohio in the 1990s found more than half of tap water samples studied contained the amoeba and similar microorganisms.

I use a neti pot occasionally, and warm tap water brings relief when nasal passages are swollen. However, I'm going to switch to distilled or pre-boiled water. I've lost enough brain cells already.

A Lighter Touch

(from nutritioncpr.com)

As a kid I read how Louis Pasteur was a hero-scientist who saved many thousands of lives by making milk safe to drink. "Never drink raw milk" was food advice as sound as "never eat wild mushrooms."

A growing movement that touts its health benefits has caused regulators to lift bans on unpasteurized ("raw") milk:

Public health authorities and major dairy industry groups oppose the practice, saying such milk can be tainted with dangerous bacteria, including E. coli, salmonella, and listeria. But in state after state, those warnings have been overwhelmed by testimonials from fans of “raw milk,” who contend pasteurized milk is more difficult to digest because the process alters enzymes and kills helpful bacteria.

Federal experts say there is no proof that pasteurization makes milk less healthful. People on all sides of the issue say the rising interest in raw milk is fueled partly by distrust of public health authorities, which grew during the covid-19 pandemic.

Many health discussions require the weighing of risks and benefits. For me the benefits of drinking unpasteurized milk aren't compelling, nor are the risks small. (Maybe I'm still influenced by childhood hagiographies of Louis Pasteur.) So raw milk is a hard pass.

Nevertheless, your humble blogger supports the right of adults to make their own decisions after they've been given the information. I applaud regulators' removal of bans on raw milk but won't drink the stuff myself. Government should have a lighter touch.

Cold Logic

(Martha Stewart photo)

Your humble blogger always hand-washes dishes with hot water. There's no question that hot, soapy water cuts oils much better than cold. Also, more bacteria are killed, and running the hot water while rinsing reduces grease build-up in the drain.

But heated water is not better than cold when it comes to washing clothes, according to Tide experts:

P&G has sold a line of Tide designed for washing in cold water for almost two decades and still sells that product, called Tide Plus Coldwater Clean. The latest campaign pitches the overall brand as being effective in cold water. The company says it has reformulated Tide over the years to be more effective...

P&G says that cleaning clothes in cold water could save $150 a year on a household’s energy bill, or somewhat less with the high-efficiency washing machines used in about 70% of U.S. households.

A Clorox scientist says warm is more effective than cold:

[Mary Gagliardi] says warmer water is generally the best way to ensure clean clothes, especially in colder climates. Ms. Gagliardi says manufacturers are able to test garment-washing in water as warm as 85 degrees Fahrenheit and define it as a cold-water wash according to levels set by standards organization ASTM International. A warm cycle is around 100 degrees, while hot is 122 degrees, she says.

“If you are in Minnesota right now and your cold-water temperature is 45 degrees, some people are washing in temperatures barely above freezing,” she says. “You are not going to get any cleaning done in 49 degrees.”

I'll stick with what I learned at the kitchen sink when it comes to washing clothes.

Call me clothes-minded, but warm is better.

Decarbonising the Gut

(Image from katygastro.com)

"Good" gut bacteria can multiply faster by starving them of carbon.

The Yale team...found that the beneficial gut bacterium Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron responded to starvation for carbon — a main building block for all cells — by sequestering a portion of the molecules for an essential transcription factor within a membrane-less compartment...

An awareness of these membrane-less compartments actually goes back a hundred years, [Yale geneticist Eduardo] Groisman said. [Postdoctoral fellow Aimilia] Krypotou’s key insight, he said, was to deduce novel properties for the bacterial transcription factor — termed Rho — based on the extra region. Sequestration of the transcription factor takes place by a process known as liquid-liquid phase separation, a ubiquitous phenomenon present in a wide variety of cells including those of humans.

My college roommates who were going to medical school said that molecular biology was their toughest course, and the preceding paragraph is an example of the concepts they had to deal with. Far be it from this non-STEM major to understand bacterial transcription and membrane-less compartments, but I am able to figure out from the article that if one is starving in general, then one is starving for carbon.

The bottom line is that this research provides yet another reason--gut health--to go on a fasting diet.

Working on the Drawbacks

Helicobacter pylori, not to scale (Yale illustration)

In our household we are partial to buying foodstuffs with antioxidants. (Antioxidants prevent cell damage that can lead to cancer, heart disease, and a host of other ailments.)

However, antioxidants also protect some bacteria that are harmful to human health.

A nutrient that is common in the human diet has been found to aid the survival of a cancer-causing bacterium, a new Yale study finds...

The nutrient, called ergothioneine, or EGT, a known antioxidant, was found to protect bacteria from oxidative stress — an imbalance in the body between reactive oxygen species, known as free radicals, and antioxidants — which is a hallmark of many disease-causing infections.

bacteria ingest the EGT nutrient — which is abundant in foods like mushrooms, beans, and grains — to aid their survival. In the case of the gastric cancer-causing pathogen Helicobacter pylori, the bacterium used the nutrient to compete successfully for survival in host tissues.

Because antioxidants provide so many health benefits the answer is not to reduce their consumption but to inhibit their absorption by the bacteria. [bold added]

“We were excited to discover an unconventional mechanism that enables bacteria to withstand oxidative stress during infection,” said Stavroula Hatzios, an assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology and of chemistry in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and senior author of the study.

“Because the protein that bacteria use to take up EGT operates in a manner distinct from that of its counterpart in human cells, we are optimistic that a specific drug could be developed to inhibit microbial uptake of this nutrient,” she added.

Very few scientific breakthroughs are an unalloyed good. The solution is not to go back to the way things were but to keep working on the negative effects.

Adding to the List of Worries: Brain-Eating Amoeba

The hot springs of Hot Ditch (Chron photo)

Another reason to limit your swimming to the ocean and chlorinated swimming pools:

Headline: This popular California hot spring reportedly still has brain-eating amoeba present in the water

Recent water testing of a popular California hot springs destination called Hot Ditch in Bishop (Inyo County) reportedly found that the same brain-eating amoeba that killed an 8-year-old boy in 2018 remained present in the water.

Dutch Benjamin Abbott and his parents visited Hot Ditch, a series of man-made water ponds in Bishop in October of 2018. Several days after they returned to Los Angeles, he experienced pain that he described feeling as if a “drill was going through” his head, according to the family’s lawyer, Scott Boyer.

He died a few days later.

Health officials confirmed he was infected with Naegleria fowleri , an amoeba that primarily enters through the nose and spurs an infection that’s fatal is 97% of cases, according to the CDC.

It's tragic enough that a boy died in 2018, but it's worse that nothing has been done by the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power in the intervening four years, according to a lawsuit:

The lawsuit claims DWP has failed to properly monitor, regular and chlorinate the water, warn visitors to the danger, and utilize a filtration system capable of protecting them...The lawsuit alleges that Keough’s Hot Springs’ practice of dumping their waste water into what’s called a diversion, which then mixes with the natural water, has created a breeding ground for the amoeba.

No one will be fired, and any damages will be covered by the ratepayers. It's good to work in the public sector.

Hi, Gene, Looking Keen

(Image from wellnessmama)

Swimming against the 2020 cleanliness tide, James Hamblin of the Yale School of Public Health says people bathe too often: [bold added]

"Five years ago, I stopped showering,” begins James Hamblin....In the microorganisms that live on our skin, Hamblin finds some explanation for what he experienced in his no-shower experiment (which, he freely admits, was born more of curiosity and laziness than ideology). After forgoing all the deodorants and cleansers he’d previously associated with cleanliness, he was . . . fine. And he didn’t smell too bad, either [blogger's note: sez who?].

In the 1980's I encountered startup millionaires who wore sandals, let their hair grow to their waist, rarely bathed, and were computer geniuses. One literally held one's nose to do business with them.

They are now in their 70's and appear none the worse for their unusual hygienic habits.

Perhaps Mr. Hamblin is right; leaving good bacteria alone can help one live to a "ripe" old age.

Intestinal Fortitude

Like the home canners of a mostly bygone era, our kitchen is over-flowing with mason jars. They're not filled with fruit preserves but with kefir, a "cultured, fermented beverage...loaded with probiotic health benefits."

In August members of our household began cultivating yeast-like kefir grains, which are multiplying like tribbles. We now have gallons of kefir drinks in various flavors, and one has to be seriously dedicated to "good" bacteria and gut health to keep up.

Staying healthy requires intestinal fortitude.

Brush Your Teeth, Save Your Brain

Tools to prevent Alzheimer's?

The battle against Alzheimer's Disease has been frustrating because definitive causes haven't been identified. Genetics, trauma, depression, sleeplessness, and obesity have all been proposed.

The most promising candidates have been amyloid plaques and tangles found in the brain tissue of deceased Alzheimer's sufferers. While suggestive, plaques and tangles have also been found in the brains of people who evidenced no Alzheimer's while they were alive.

Some researchers are now looking into the bacteria responsible for gum disease:

Multiple research teams have been investigating P. gingivalis, and have so far found that it invades and inflames brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s; that gum infections can worsen symptoms in mice genetically engineered to have Alzheimer’s; and that it can cause Alzheimer’s-like brain inflammation, neural damage, and amyloid plaques in healthy mice.

Plaques, according to this theory, develop as a defense against the bacteria and are not the cause of Alzheimer's Disease. (Aside: if true, this would be a textbook example of correlation not equalling causation.)

After reading this article, your humble blogger will floss more often and run the electric toothbrush for the full recommended two minutes.