Let Your Meat Take the Heat!

If you live in the U.S., chances are that you looked at the calendar this week and were surprised to realize that Thanksgiving is next Thursday. That's right folks, time to plan your menus because the government is giving us the day off to stuff our faces. Don't despair, I'm not about to tell you that your soon-to-be heaping plate of thanks is unhealthy. I'm a firm believer of everything in moderation (Alright, not everything. Heroin in moderation generally doesn't work out). In other words, just don't eat like it's Thanksgiving every day and you'll be fine.

What you should know, if you're an omnivore who plans to partake in gobbling up some turkey meat, is safe tips for preparing your holiday fowl. If all that meat is not thawed, cooked, and stored properly, the only thing you'll be thankful for is your toilet. You see, if you aren't careful, there are plenty of opportunities for your turkey to become overgrown with types of bacteria that cause food borne illness. To keep your Thanksgiving food-poisoning-free, here are some guidelines for safe turkey cooking:

• There are three thawing methods that have been deemed safe for turkeys: in the refrigerator, in cold water, or in the microwave. Detailed instructions on each method can be found here. 

• A meat thermometer is an essential Thanksgiving Day tool! Cook your turkey until it reaches a minimum internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Be sure to check the temperature where the turkey is thickest (breast and innermost portion of thigh and wing).

• Not all cooking methods are equal. Deep fried turducken anyone??? A variety of safe cooking methods can be found here.

• If you choose to stuff your turkey (yes, it's as dirty as it sounds), be sure to do so immediately before cooking. The stuffing should also reach a minimum temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

• As should be done whenever handling raw meat, be sure to wash all surfaces and utensils that come into contact with uncooked turkey as soon as possible. Please do not cut your sweet potatoes on a cutting board contaminated with raw turkey juices. That would be a tragedy on many levels.

• Leftovers, because that's bound to happen, should not be kept out at room temperature for longer than two hours. Before you take a nap, put the turkey in the refrigerator! Leftover turkey can be safely stored in the refrigerator for up to four days or in the freezer until it turns into a freezer burned icicle (about 6 months). 

Happy turkey day to all and remember to let your meat take the heat!

Don't Let the Flu Mess with You

The fall air brings much delight: jack-o-lanterns, apple pies, and piles of crunchy, multicolored leaves to jump in. It also brings some not-so-delightful things, like influenza. Every year, as you sip your first pumpkin latte of the season or buy your favorite pumpkin ale, you should think to yourself "now would be a great time to get a flu shot".

Despite historical evidence that influenza is nothing to mess around with, its power is often drastically minimized. The flu is not just a bad cold. Have you ever heard of someone being killed by a cold? I didn't think so. Influenza has the potential to be so deadly that it is responsible for one of the worst epidemics ever recorded: the 1918 flu , also called the "Spanish flu", which killed at least 20 million people. Though most flu strains aren't this dangerous, even seasonal flu causes thousands of deaths every year. And as 2009 reminded us, flu pandemics are not an event of the past. 

It's true that most people who get the flu won't die or suffer complications such as pneumonia, but they will be miserable, bed-ridden sacks of viruses. If you've had the flu, you know that it confines you to a horizontal position for about a week (sorry, no such thing as the "24-hour flu") while you alternate between fever-induced delusions and writhing in pain from body aches. It's not a good time. Not even worth some sick days. Trust me, the movies you've been wanting  to watch will not be funny if you have the flu.

If that's not reason enough to make you want to avoid the flu, consider what your infected respiratory droplets might do to those around you. Oh, you're home alone watching movies and won't get anyone else sick? WRONG - that strategy won't work. When you become infected with the flu, you are contagious for one day before you begin having symptoms.

Your best bet for protecting yourself and those around you is to get vaccinated each fall. While the flu vaccine doesn't provide immunity for all flu variations, it does guard against the three strains which are expected to be most common during a given season. Because there are so many strains of flu virus, and the virus is constantly mutating, the vaccine changes every year. Researchers around the world monitor flu activity in order to determine how the vaccine should be formulated for each flu season (talk about a stressful job). It's important to note that the vaccine is made from killed viruses, in other words the viruses cannot make you sick! The part of the virus that your immune system needs in order to produce antibodies against the pathogen remains. However, it is impossible for the flu vaccine to cause the flu (unless the nurse who gave you the shot sneezed on you).

Flu season generally peaks in winter, so now is the time to get vaccinated. Be smart and don't let the flu mess with you!

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Lady Mosquitoes: Free Rides for Pathogens

Itchy welts left behind by mosquitoes are one thing, but the microscopic friends they can leave behind are another thing all together

Mosquito-borne diseases have been making national headlines recently through record-breaking numbers of West Nile virus and emerging cases of Eastern equine encephalitis. Though these are certainly newsworthy trends, there is nothing new about how good mosquitoes are at transmitting infectious diseases. It should come as no surprise given all the extra time they've had to evolve.While mosquitoes have been flying around Earth for approximately 220 million years , modern humans emerged only 200,000 years ago. This means that to mosquitoes, we really are nothing but fresh meat. At least to lady mosquitoes.

Female mosquitoes are the only ones interested in feeding on us as they need protein from our blood to develop their eggs. They track us down by scent, visual clues, and heat detection - all so they can use us as a blood meal for the purpose of laying up to 300 eggs. Unlike vampires, mosquitoes don't actually bite. Why are they called mosquito bites? Good question. Instead of biting, they actually pierce our skin with a mouth part called a proboscis. This is basically a needle-like structure that is used to suck our blood.

Since lady mosquitoes are essentially sticking us with used needles* every time they feed on us, it's no wonder they have an affinity for being disease vectors. With all the blood they drink, mosquitoes often slurp up blood-borne pathogens (viruses, bacteria, and parasites that cause illness). These pathogens then get a free ride to a new host without causing any harm to the mosquito, thanks to her anciently refined immune system. Transmission occurs through the mosquito's saliva, which is injected prior to feeding (it contains anticoagulants which are substances that prevent your blood from clotting). In addition to the aforementioned West Nile virus and Eastern equine encephalitis, mosquitoes can also infect humans with several other diseases including:

• Malaria
• Dengue fever
• Western equine encephalitis 
• Japanese encephalitis
• St. Louis encephalitis
• La Crosse encephalitis
• Yellow fever
• Rift Valley fever

The upshot? Not all pathogens survive after they've been ingested by a mosquito and therefore cannot be transmitted to a new host. Thankfully, this is the case for HIV. In case you didn't catch that the first time: mosquitoes do not transmit HIV!

Mosquitoes may have millions of years of evolution in their favor, but our big brains have found some ways to make ourselves seem less tasty to wannabe mama mosquitoes. Here are some ways you can prevent yourself from being used as a blood meal when participating in outdoor activities during mosquito season:

• Use an insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus (also called PMD), or IR3535.
• Minimize skin exposure and wear light-colored clothing when in mosquito infested areas (e.g. wooded areas or areas with large bodies of standing water).
• Minimize areas of standing water around your home.
• Don't keep windows and doors open unless you have intact screens. 

Another safety measure you can take is to follow recommendations for prophylactic medications and vaccines when traveling to countries with high rates of mosquito-borne diseases.

When I was a teenager I thought smelling like bug spray was worse than putting up with itchy mosquito bites. I would like to officially retract that opinion.

*While the proboscis of a mosquito resembles a needle, a feeding mosquito does not employee the same mechanisms of a hypodermic syringe. Used syringes (also called needles) pose a different set of threats and should not be confused with insects.

Naegleria fowleri wants to pick your brain (and eat it too)!

Ahhhh, the sweet relief of unclogged, gunk-free nasal passages! While neti pots and other nasal irrigation devices are weird, gross, and just plain awkward, there's nothing quite like being able to breathe freely out of both nostrils. And who wouldn't pour water through their nose if it meant curing the throbbing ache of sinus pressure?

Here's the catch: your sinuses are close neighbors to your brain. If a parasite hitches a free river ride through your nasal passages, into your sinuses, and up to your brain, a stuffy nose will be the least of your worries. Yes, frighteningly enough, this can actually happen. While rare, there have been reports of at least two individuals who have died from parasitic infections following nasal irrigation using tap water. In these cases, the water contained an ameba known in the microbe world as Naegleria fowleri and commonly referred to as the "brain-eating ameba". These parasites can travel to your frontal lobe via your olfactory nerve (the nerve that carries messages about smell from your nose to your brain). As its common name suggests, once N. fowleri reaches your brain it will begin feeding on it. This results in an infection termed primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), a rapidly progressing infection that leads to seizures, hallucinations, and coma. PAM has a fatality rate of about 97%, and victims usually die within 1-2 weeks of symptom onset.

Because of the documented cases of PAM from neti pot use and the risk of infection by other microorganisms, the FDA has recently issued new guidelines for safely rinsing your sinuses. While salt solutions are supposed to be used for nasal irrigation, it would take approximately 18 hours for the salt to kill brain-eating amebas. The only real prevention is to use one of the following water sources when preparing nasal irrigation solutions:

1) bottled water that is labeled as "distilled" or "sterile"
2) water that has previously been boiled  for 3-5 minutes and cooled to lukewarm (if not used immediately, store in a clean and closed container for no greater than 24 hours)
3) tap water filtered through a pore size of 1 micron or less

If you tend to think like me, you'll be wondering: "if this ameba can be found in our tap water, how is it not killing off more people?" The answer is that if we gulp down one of these amebas in a glass of water, it will die once it reaches the vat of acid in our stomachs, leaving us unharmed. But be warned: these microorganisms are usually found in bodies of warm, freshwater and infection most commonly occurs during recreational water activities such as swimming and diving. Do what you will with that fun fact, but I'll be keeping my head above water.

Join the Herd to Stop Whooping Cough

Pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough is officially infecting more people than it has since you were probably born. Current rates of infection are greater than they have been in over 50 years, including epidemic levels in the state of Washington.

Why is this happening? Much of the rise in infection can likely be attributed to a decline in childhood vaccine rates. Less people getting vaccinated = more people getting sick. Shocker.

I don't mean to poke (pun intended) fun of people who choose not to vaccinate themselves or their children. It's not surprising considering the flurry of misinformation and myth that has resulted in fear regarding the safety of vaccines. The panic about vaccine safety can largely be traced back to a scientific paper published in 1998 which suggested that vaccines may be linked to autism. Several further studies were unable to replicate the author's findings and the paper has since been retracted, in other words officially unpublished, considered to be fraudulent and deemed to be full of hooey. Despite this, the media has perpetuated the vaccine-autism myth, including through famous people who claim to know more than doctors.

I'll be the first to admit that sorting through information about medicine and science can be damn confusing. But, here are the facts, plain and simple: 

1) There is no scientific evidence linking autism to vaccines. I repeat: THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE LINKING AUTISM TO VACCINES.

2) The pertussis vaccine was created over 100 years ago and has been SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN to prevent whooping cough.

3) Whooping cough KILLS BABIES. Of those infected, about 2 of every 100 will die.

The final kicker is that vaccination really isn't a personal choice. Whether or not you vaccinate can have more far-reaching effects than you realize. You see, pathogens (the buggers that make us sick) cannot thrive well in communities where much of the population is immune. Through a phenomenon known as "herd immunity" or "community immunity", the vulnerable people in a population are protected when a pathogen can't thrive well in their area. This can even lead to complete eradication of a disease, such as happened with smallpox. In the case of whooping cough, infants who are too young to be vaccinated are less likely to be infected if they live in an area where the whooping cough bacteria doesn't have many hosts (non-immune people) to infect.

So, please for the sake of babies everywhere,join the herd: vaccinate your children and keep up to date with your vaccine boosters!

If you have more questions about vaccine safety, check out these evidence-based and easy to understand answers: http://www.vaccinews.net/top20questions.php

Toxoplasma gondii: Danger for Baby Mamas

As you may know, pregnant women are advised against cleaning cat boxes for the duration of their pregnancy. You may wonder if OB/GYNs banded together and declared that since pregnant women are busy growing human life in their wombs and all, they might as well be given a free pass from cat box duty for 9 months. Or perhaps it is because if a pregnant woman stoops down to clean the cat box she'll get stuck? These seem like legitimate enough reasons to me, but if you need more incentive to keep pregnant ladies away from cat boxes, try this one on for size: PARASITES! Yep. There is a parasite (a protozoan parasite to be scientifically accurate) named Toxoplasma gondii that can be transmitted in cat poo. Most people who become infected don't get sick because their kick-ass immune system takes charge before the little buggers cause any harm. At the most, they might get flu-like symptoms and never suspect that a cat poo parasite is the culprit. However, if a pregnant women becomes infected for the first time (i.e. she has no previous immunity) she can pass the infection onto her unborn baby. This can result in miscarriage, giving birth to a stillborn baby, or giving birth to a baby who goes on to develop vision loss, mental disability, or seizures. Is that reason enough??

Side note: Recent press has scared cat ladies everywhere by claiming that Toxoplasma gondii causes brain cancer. These rumors have been put to rest. Cat ladies should only worry about their cat negatively affecting their health if they happen to be pregnant cat ladies. Even then, there is no need to avoid your feline friends, just avoid their poo box.

Novel Swine Flu Prevention

The CDC has recently reported that cases of individuals becoming infected with new strains of swine flu are on the rise. Viruses, tiny as they are, have the incredible capacity to infinitely evolve new ways to infect hosts, including jumping from species to species. Most of the time, swine flu only infects swine and is not transmissible to humans. However, under the right conditions, a pig carrying swine flu might infect a human in close contact. Viral strains that make this species jump, can over time learn to be quite successful at infecting humans. This means that they acquire the capacity to spread from human to human. So, now when Babe infects Farmer Hoggett, he can infect his neighbor Bob, who infects his wife Betty, and so on and so forth.

Many of the humans that have contracted swine flu this summer have been in contact with pigs at county fairs, which prompted the CDC to issue these guidelines. If you want to hang with  swine, that's cool. But, just remember these guidelines so that you aren't used as a human vat for swine flu while it brews its next pandemic strain. The good news: you can still eat bacon! There is NO evidence that eating properly handled and cooked pork puts you at risk for catching swine flu. Artherosclerosis? What? That's not what this post is about.

What Not to Share

Supposedly, we all learned to share in kindergarten. Sharing is caring, right? Well, not always. What your kindergarten teacher didn't mention is that some things should NEVER, under any circumstances whatsoever, be shared. NEVER. Case in point: needles. No matter what you are doing with needles - injecting insulin or hormones, having a botox party, getting a garage piercing/tattoo, or using illicit substances - do not share. Needles give nasty viruses, such as HIV and hepatitis, a free ride right into your blood stream. That kind of sharing is definitely not caring. If you or someone you know is at risk for sharing needles  and doesn't have access to clean ones, inquire as to whether an organization in your community offers needle exchange programs. And remember, sometimes it's ok not to share.