Dog walking, doctor talking
Taking your canine pal for a walk is good for both of you, but it’s not without its dangers. A Johns Hopkins University study looked at emergency room injuries between 2001 to 2020 related to walking a leashed dog.
There were nearly 423,000 accidents. The top three injuries: finger fractures, traumatic brain injury and shoulder sprains. Women and adults over age 65 were most likely to sustain serious injury, usually due to falls.
“Clinicians should be aware of these risks and convey them to patients, especially women and older adults,” said the researchers. “We encourage clinicians to screen for pet ownership, assess fracture and fall risk, and discuss safe dog-walking practices at regular health maintenance visits for these vulnerable groups.
“Despite our findings, we also strongly encourage people to leash their dogs wherever it is legally required.”
Get me that. Stat!
Half as many children in the United States were diagnosed with asthma in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with previous years. Researchers think fewer colds may be part of the reason, aided and abetted by masking and keeping children separated, i.e. not going to school.
Body of knowledge
The human body glows, emitting visible light at levels that rise and fall throughout the day. However, the light emitted is 1,000 times less intense than the levels necessary to be seen by our naked eyes.
Counts
Stories for the waiting room
New research suggests that deep sleep — when a person’s brain activity, breathing and heart rate slow down, body temperature drops and muscles relax — may act as a buffer against memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s disease because it increases resilience against an accumulating amyloid beta protein in the brain linked to dementia.
“If we believe that sleep is so critical for memory,” said Matthew Walker at UC Berkeley, “could sleep be one of those missing pieces in the explanatory puzzle that would tell us exactly why two people with the same amounts of severe amyloid pathology have very different memory?
“If the findings ed the hypothesis, it would be thrilling, because sleep is something we can change. It is a modifiable factor.”
Doc talk
Mania of the week
Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for pork and beans is 84 ounces in 58 seconds, held by Micah Collins.
Observation
“Some things you have to do every day. Eating seven apples on Saturday night instead of one a day just isn’t going to get the job done.”
Ig Nobel apprised
The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that’s hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.
In 1998, the Ig Nobel Prize in science education went to Dolores Krieger, professor emerita at New York University for demonstrating the merits of therapeutic touch, a method by which nurses manipulate the energy fields of ailing patients by carefully avoiding physical with those patients.
Medical history
This week in 1933, R. Plato Schwartz debuted the electrobasograph, a device that created photographic records of “the walking gait of individuals to distinguish between actual and spurious limps in damage claims for injuries.” Later, Schwartz would expand his research to study the effects of poliomyelitis and cerebral palsy on muscle function.
Self-exam
Q: How many parts are there to the brain?
A: While there are many designated regions (think amygdala or hypothalamus), there are three main parts: the cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem. The cerebrum is the largest, comprising roughly 85 percent of the organ’s total weight. It controls emotions, thought, memory and speech. It’s divided into a right and a left side called hemispheres, with each hemisphere further split into parts called lobes.
The cerebellum coordinates the kinds of movements we don’t usually think about: It helps us walk upright and in a straight line; it keeps us balanced so we don’t tip over; and it gives us coordination.
The brainstem connects the brain with the spinal cord and controls vital processes, such as breathing, digestion and heart rate.
Med school
Q: What is the biggest t in the human body?
A: The knee. The hip t is second largest.
Last words
“Bring me a bulletproof vest.”
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
