Something fishy about hair loss
Fish oil consists mostly of fatty acids, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, whose consumption is touted as a way to reduce the risk of conditions ranging from asthma to arthritis to heart disease.
It appears, however, that consuming too much fish oil might also cause hair loss. Well — at least among mice.
A new study revealed that mice on a high-fat diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids experienced considerable hair loss, particularly large patches along their shoulders. Researchers deduced that the fatty acids were specifically accumulating in skin cells in the shoulders, interacting and disrupting immune cells that ultimately resulted in the death of hair follicles.
The findings were novel and unexpected. It remains to be seen if the phenomenon occurs in humans, and if so, at what level of omega-3 consumption. The scientists said more research is needed, which presumably means they’ll be putting their heads together (bald or not).
Body of knowledge
When deprived of oxygen, brain cells start to die within five minutes. The exception is when certain factors are involved, specifically cold. If a person’s body temperature falls below 95 degrees Fahrenheit (hypothermia), metabolism slows and oxygen needs decrease. There are documented cases of people surviving longer than 15 minutes without adequate oxygen when exposed to frigid water or buried in an avalanche.
Mark your calendar
July is awareness month for cord blood, group B strep, juvenile arthritis, sarcoma (tumors that occur in bones and soft tissues) and UV safety, which means you probably shouldn’t be reading this outside.
Learn well, grasshopper
Humans can reportedly detect up to 1 trillion different scents, but that pales in comparison with other organisms. Bloodhounds, for example, have 300 million smell receptors. Humans have 5 million.
Dogs are now being used to detect whiffs of some kinds of cancers, but they might soon be ed by others. Grasshoppers deploy quite sophisticated olfactory senses to get around in their world. Detected pheromones let them know, for example, when to molt and, more dramatically, when to swarm.
Michigan State University researchers are now experimenting with using the odor-sensing circuitry of the grasshopper brain to detect the scent signatures of human oral cancers. So-called “electronic noses” are being developed to do something similar, but the Michigan scientists said grasshoppers still have a leg up (or six) in of effectiveness.
Doc talk
Phobia of the week
Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for watermelon is 13.22 pounds in 15 minutes, held by “Buffalo” Jim Reeves. It was an upset victory, with Reeves besting the top seeds.
Best medicine
First guy: I recently heard a great joke about amnesia.
Second guy: Oh, yeah, how does it go?
First guy: How does what go?
Hypochondriac’s guide
Dyscalculia is a learning disorder that affects a person’s ability to understand number-based information and math. It’s similar to dyslexia (with language) but is an entirely different diagnosis.
Observation
“The devil has put a penalty on all things we enjoy in life. Either we suffer in health or we suffer in soul or we get fat.”
Medical history
This week in 1996, Dolly, a cloned sheep, was born at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. Scientists had replaced the nucleus of an egg cell with the nucleus from a parent cell — in Dolly’s case, an udder cell from a Finn Dorset sheep. Somehow, the egg cell reprogrammed the donated DNA contained within its new nucleus, and Dolly was the result. The manipulation was done using microscopic needles, a method pioneered in 1970s human fertility treatments. The resulting embryo was implanted into the womb of a third, surrogate sheep. Dolly’s birth was announced to the world in early 1997.
Med school
Match these parts of the body with the how often they are replaced.
1. Liver cells
2. Skeleton
3. Red blood cells
4. Fat storage cells
5. Skin cells
a) 10 years
b) 120 days
c) 39 days
d) 300 to 500 days
Note: One answer applies to two different body parts.
Answers: 1d; 2a; 3b; 4a; 5c.
Curtain calls
The so-called Erfurt latrine disaster occurred on July 26, 1184, when Henry VI, King of , summoned his nobles to an informal assembly. They convened on the wooden second floor of the Petersberg Citadel in the town of Erfurt.
The floor could not the combined weight of the gathered nobility and collapsed, with most of the nobles falling into a latrine cesspit below the ground floor where roughly 60 persons died, either crushed by falling debris, suffocated by fumes or drowned in liquid excrement.
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
