Your “breath print”

Convincing research has shown that our breathing patterns are so distinctive that they can be used to identify us, just as can be done with our fingerprints. Researchers studied this phenomenon by outfitting study participants with sensors that were fitted with tubes to capture the airflow out of each nostril. Sophisticated software analyzed the information. Researchers found they could identify individuals by their breathing patterns 90 percent of the time.

Each time we inhale, that activity fires sensory neurons and other cells in our brains, a phenomenon that yields information about our brains. What’s more, breathing is intimately tied to many body processes, each of which might be unique to individuals. As one of the researchers said, “We hypothesized, brains are unique, ergo breathing patterns would also be unique.” One person might have a consistent pause before each inhale. Another might pause some of the time and barely at other times. For many people, one nostril might have a greater flow than another at different times of the day. These breathing traits proved consistent over the two years of the study, showing that we have very consistent breathing patterns.

In analyzing the data, the researchers found that they could link the participants’ body mass index with features of their breath patterns. They also found correlations between the participants’ breathing patterns and their answers to questionnaires that assessed traits related to anxiety, depression or autism. For example, people who scored high on depressive traits shared a tendency to exhale very swiftly. Because of the apparent link between breath patterns and health—mental and otherwise—researchers speculate about whether it’s possible to determine which breath patterns indicate illness and whether it might be possible to teach people ways of breathing that might change their biology. I guess you could experiment on yourself.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

A guide to pain-relieving drugs

Advil had long been my go-to pain-reliving drug. It worked well for my arthritis pain, but I learned, too late, that it was the cause of my acid reflux, so I quit taking it, which put an end to that side effect. Anyhow, The New York Times published a useful guide to pain relievers, which I’ll summarize here.

There are two types of pain relievers: acetaminophen (Tylenol), and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which include Advil, Motrin, Aleve, and aspirin.  NSAIDs help relieve pain by rushing to sites of inflammation throughout the body. They reduce or block two enzymes (COX-1 and COX-2) that are involved in inflammation and pain. Tylenol acts on receptors in the brain and spinal cord, but scientists aren’t sure how it works.

NSAIDs are best at treating inflammation pain anywhere in the body, whether it’s localized, such as a toothache, or spread throughout, such as arthritis. All the NSAIDs work similarly, so you’re advised to choose the one that works best for you. Aleve (naproxen) keeps pain away longer than the others—about 12 hours. The others last for about six hours.

Tylenol is most effective for mild pain, such as body aches or mild arthritis. It won’t treat symptoms of inflammation, such as swelling or redness.

You can take Tylenol and NSAIDs together, either at the same time or by alternating them, a technique that lets you benefit from both mechanisms. However, avoid mixing NSAIDs, such as Advil and Aleve.

Avoid too many NSAIDs at once or for long periods of time. Such usage increases your risk of developing chronic acid reflux, nausea, ulcers or kidney problems. Doing so also increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, and high blood pressure. Tylenol is less likely to cause such side effects, although it can be toxic to your liver when taken at high doses.

I now take a prescription drug called diclofenac, which is an NSAID. It was prescribed at the time of my knee replacements and seems to work well. I only take it a couple of times a week. Tylenol doesn’t do much for me. 

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

The health effects of sunlight: Part II

In my last blog post, I discussed examples of the ways sunlight affects the immune system, especially for those people with autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. Research has shown that UV light, whether from the sun or from specialized light boxes, tamps down the inflammatory response that causes such diseases. This post is about skin, as reported in a Scientific American article called “Can Sunlight Cure Disease?” Skin is where the magic happens.

As you may have learned in school, your skin is the largest organ in your body. But you probably didn’t know that your skin is a virtual pharmacopeia. In addition to vitamin D, your skin produces melatonin, serotonin, endorphins, endocannabinoids, cortisol, oxytocin, leptin, nitric oxide, cis-urocanic acid, itaconate, lumisterol, tachysterol, and a dozen other vitamin D-like compounds that don’t even have names yet. To keep you healthy, your skin is in constant conversation with the rest of your body, including your brain. It’s also a major site for the immune system. As such, it is stocked with body-defending T-cells, macrophages, neutrophils, cytokines, antimicrobial peptides, and other key players. Sometimes these “key players” go haywire, as with auto-immune diseases.

UV light stirs up this stew of cells in lots of complicated ways, such as breaking chemical bonds, producing multiple molecules, increasing protein production, flipping atoms to new configurations, producing lipids, and so forth. No one fully understands how all of this works—how all the cells and signals bounce off one another. But they do know that UV light “has a surprising ability to calm an immune system that has bolted out of control.” They know that UV light triggers a cascade of signals that reach every organ in the body, and they’re tracking the way molecules in the skin respond to UV light. They’d like to discover a pill that will tamp down an out-of-control immune system. For now, there’s just sunlight or a light box.

I get plenty of sun and my immune system has kept me healthy. But my skin is a mess.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

The health effects of sunlight: Part I

Scientific American has published an article called “Can Sunlight Cure Disease?” It’s very interesting, but also long and complicated. It’s about how ultraviolet light on skin can calm an out-of-control immune system, which is the cause of autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Auto immune diseases occur when our immune systems viciously turn against our own bodies and organs.

I’m going to try to summarize the article’s main points over two blog posts. This one focuses on the fact that many diseases are much more common at higher latitudes where there’s less sunlight and rarer near the sunny equator. This is especially notable with MS, which has prevalence rates close to zero near the equator. But the rate increases by 3.64 cases per 100,000 people for each degree of latitude. In northern Europe and North America, MS cases are well over 100 per 100,000 people and are growing stronger over time. In Australia, which has a wide range of latitudes, researchers found that MS rose from 12 per 100,000 closer to the equator to 76 per 100,000 at higher latitudes.

In general, researchers have found other signs of sunlight’s preventive effect on MS. For example, people with the most sun damage on the backs of their hands (more sun exposure) have just one-third the rate of MS than do people with less sun damage. Kids who spent less than 30 minutes a day outside had five times the risk of MS compared with kids who spent more than an hour outside.

Experiments with special UV-emitting light boxes to treat MS have begun. Patients who have used the boxes have found relief from many of their symptoms, such as fatigue. The boxes might also work for other autoimmune diseases such as type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease and colitis—diseases that are more common in people who get very little sun exposure. (For years, it’s been known that exposure to sunlight or sunlamps soothes psoriasis, another autoimmune disease.)

Scientists have yet to uncover the “mysterious molecular pathway through which the skin tells the immune system to relax.” As one researcher noted, “We don’t know what the golden molecule is; we just know it’s not vitamin D.” In fact, they note that vitamin D supplementation “doesn’t help with any of these diseases.”

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.

Hospital advertisements

I always get incensed when I see hospital advertisements, especially those that are wildly expensive, such as full-page ads in pricey publications. Hospitals shouldn’t be spending money on advertising! I shouldn’t be so naïve. We all know that hospitals are businesses and that businesses advertise.

During the last Super Bowl, NYU Langone Health aired a 30-second advertisement. It cost $8 million. Like me, Representative Greg Murphy, a urologist and Republican congressman from North Carolina, was incensed at this expenditure. He wrote a stern letter to NYU Langone’s chief executive, questioning the hospital’s stewardship of its money, especially given the fact that the hospital receives federal money. The letter also asked about the hospital’s overseas investments and whether the health system was exploiting legal loopholes to maximize profit.

Shortly after the letter was received, a private jet landed at the Greenville, N.C., airport, which is not far from where Murphy lives. The jet was registered to the investment firm founded by Kenneth G. Langone, the billionaire benefactor of NYU Langone and the chairman of the hospital’s board of directors. Langone is also a major Republican donor. Reporters know that someone, either Langone himself or his representative, visited Murphy. They don't know exactly what was said at the meeting, but two days after that visit, Murphy sent a second letter, changing his message from critic to booster, praising NYU Langone’s “world class patient outcomes,” and stating that “America would be much healthier if all hospitals could report these excellent numbers.”

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.