One flu over
Beginning as early as the 2024-25 flu season, it might be possible for qualifying patients to protect themselves using the nasal flu vaccine FluMist. The drugmaker, AstraZeneca, has requested that the FDA consider approval for people ages 18 to 49 and children at least 2 years old.
FluMist wouldn’t be sold over the counter. You’d still need to see a clinician, who would order the vaccine. (Of course, if you’re seeing a clinician, you could also just get the flu shot then and there.) The vaccine requires refrigeration.
But for folks who despise innoculations, FDA approval could move the needle.
Body of knowledge
The longest recorded (but unofficial) period a person has gone without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours and 40 minutes (453 hours and 40 minutes), held by a man participating in a rocking chair marathon. By the end of the contest, the man was experiencing paranoia, hallucinations, blurry vision, slurred words and an inability to concentrate.
Regular periods of sleep are critical to health. A 2019 study found that human participants began experiencing neurological impairment after being awake for 16 hours. Sleep deprivation exceeding 24 hours resulted in reduced reaction time, slurred speech, impaired decision-making, diminished memory and attention, irritability, impaired vision, hearing and hand-eye coordination, and tremors.
A rare inherited disease called fatal familial insomnia causes patients to accumulate an abnormal protein in their brains, progressively worsening sleep. Their bodies and brains begin to deteriorate. The disorder kills most diagnosed patients within an average of 18 months.
Get me that. Stat!
Stroke deaths around the world are projected to climb 50 percent by 2050, according to the World Health Organization, with almost all of the increase based in low- and middle-income countries with poorer prevention and treatment tools.
Counts
Doc talk
Phobia of the week
Best medicine
It’s amazing how much “exercise” and “extra fries” sound alike.
Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for holiday spiral-cut baked ham is 2 pounds, 10 ounces in five minutes, held by Bryan Miller. So much preserved pork threatened Miller’s health, but he was cured.
Observation
“Are you all right? You should have two of everything down the sides and one of everything down the middle.”
Medical history
This week in 1954, the first successful kidney transplant was carried out between identical twins by surgeons at Peter Bent Hospital in Boston, Mass. The kidney was donated to Richard Herrick, 23, by his identical twin, Ronald. The operation was led by Dr. John P. Merrill, who had previously completed a series of nine kidney transplants, only to find they failed.
Merrill suspected they were rejected by the recipients’ immune system. The identical twins presented an opportunity to test his hypothesis, beginning with an exchange of skin grafts. When the grafts proved successful, the kidney transplant was conducted.
Richard, who was dying from chronic nephritis, lived another eight years, dying in 1962. His brother Ronald died in 2010 at the age of 79.
Sum body
Contagious illnesses are more common in winter because respiratory droplets contaminated by viruses or bacteria travel more easily in dry air when an infected person coughs or sneezes and people tend to congregate more often and longer in close quarters.
Here are the 10 most common illnesses of the season.
1. Rhinovirus (common cold)
2. Flu
3. COVID-19
4. Respiratory syncytial virus
5. Bronchitis (chest cold)
6. Pneumonia
7. Pink eye
8. Sinusitis (sinus infection)
9. Strep throat
10. Norovirus (stomach bugs)
Medical myths
Occasionally, an old rumor resurfaces that underarm antiperspirants are linked to breast cancer, based on the notion of chemicals in the antiperspirant leaching into tissues, especially after shaving underarm hair.
There is no strong epidemiologic evidence and little scientific evidence to the claim. The few studies that have investigated a purported association have found no link between antiperspirant/deodorant use or underarm shaving with cancer risk.
Epitaphs
“I’m just resting my eyes.”
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
