Sympathy yawns – from your dog?!!

Dogs show empathy through yawning.

Ok – so we’ve all experienced it.  You see someone yawn and before you know it you’re yawning too.  You’re not tired, you’re not bored, but there you are yawning anyway.  We all do it, but to be quite honest there’s no clear reason as to why.  What happens during a yawn is known:

  • Your mouth opens, your jaw drops, opening your airway.
  • You inhale and air is taken in.
  • Your abdominal muscles flex and your diaphragm is pushed down.
  • Your lungs fill to capacity and then some of the air is blown back out.

Some argue that the whole point of all this action has to have something to do with our bodies and that something is to cool down our brains.  Others believe the yawn to be more of a social thing, indicating that we are experiencing something unpleasant, AKA boring, but not threatening. 

Regardless of the reason, a recent study has found that the contagious yawn is not limited to just humans.  The study was conducted in Japan on two dozen breeds of dogs, ranging from poodles to pit bulls.  They had both strangers and owners yawn in front of the dogs and discovered that the dogs were far more likely to yawn in response to their owner than the stranger.  Fake yawns didn’t fool Fido.  The dogs could discern between a genuine yawn and one that was contrived. 

Lest you are thinking that this is not a study to be taken seriously, the researchers had the dogs and humans wear heart rate monitors in order to eliminate stress as the trigger.  The findings were that stress was not involved causing them to draw the conclusion that empathy and emotional proximity were the more likely factors.

So give old Fido a bone today. He deserves it for being so empathetic.

Submitted by Tina Comston, M.Ed.

For more information:

Gettin’ a little dirty may actually be good for you

Bing Images

Science has done it again. Dirty pigs are healthier pigs. It has been proven. Don’t ask how, because it involved a lot of fetal pigs (which makes my undergraduate pig dissecting PTSD flare up), poop and blood.  But it also involved a lot of wallowing and I am ALL about science that proves that wallowing is good for you.

Sure, the title – Environmentally-acquired bacteria influence microbial diversity and natural innate immune responses at gut surfaces – scintillating as it is, might not immediately strike you as a defense of all that is good about being dirty. But pull up a chair and consider the dirty details.

Gut immunologists took baby pigs and sent them outside, inside or into a kind of antibiotic-laced biologic bubble. The guts of the outdoor, mud-wallowing pigs were full of healthier bacteria than the indoor pig guts. Not only was there more of the good stuff in outdoor beasts, there was also less harmful bacteria in the chute. Most cool and interesting, though, is that the bacterial composition of the piggies’ guts influenced the expression of immunologic genes: pristine, white-glove pork expressed more inflammatory genes and other icky inflammatory stuff.

I know what you’re thinking. Pigs aren’t human, Dr. Rentel. True. Based on this study I’m not going to build a heated pigsty with a giant HDTV for me and my kids in the backyard. There is, however, a growing, stinking, microbial-filled gooey heap of evidence that human interaction with bacteria is good. Why does the prevalence of autoimmune diseases and allergies keep going up? This study gives some very direct, powerful evidence as to how the cascade of autoimmune badness gets started. Okay, yes, in pigs, but pigs are a whole lot like us.

As my favorite infectious disease specialist in the whole wide world (Dr. George Gianakopoulos) used to say, “Nature abhors a vacuum. Kill the good bacteria and welcome in the bad.”  I’m not saying you should order dirt for take-out tonight.  But skipping the whole-body antimicrobial gel bath every day might not be a bad idea. 

Victoria Rentel, MD (OSU Student Health Services Alum)

BMC Biology 2009, 7:79

Does this condom make me look fat? A tale of fashion, passion, and (yawn) science

Talk about wearing a condom!

I know you’ve all heard the condom lecture a million times. “Blah blah blah contraception blah blah sexually transmitted infections.” And I know that when I whip out my patented “Herpes really IS a gift that keeps on giving” spiel most of you just hear a buzzing noise.  Well, in science news you can use, a couple of observational studies recently suggest that a condom alone might not be enough for pregnancy and STI protection. You have to be a condom connoisseur, a fashionista if you will, choosing (and using) a condom that not only makes you look good, but feel good.

Like all good fashion, condoms have form and function. Ignore either at your own (and your partner’s) peril.  Let’s start with function:

  • The most common cause of condom malfunction? The condom isn’t removed from the wrapper. It doesn’t do you any good to have one if you don’t use it!
  • Even the most fashionable raincoat will leave you soaked if you put in on after you go out in the rain. Same thing with condoms. If you put it on after the action starts, then – no pun intended – you’re screwed. And by action, I don’t mean when you cross the finish line; I mean before you start the race. If you are one of the lucky few who secrete a little bit of semen before ejaculation, you can impregnate or transmit disease to your partner before you know it.
  • Like an old pair of stinky socks, condoms should not be re-used. Do I really need to explain this one? If you’re lucky enough to need another condom, break out a fresh one.

Once you put it on, keep it on!  In a recent study, about 40% of male participants reported removing their condom because of fit, or in our analogy, poor form.  Commonly cited reasons for removal included penile irritation, loss of erection from discomfort, and partner complaints. A few important fashion tips from the condom runway:

  • Don’t squeeze! A too-tight condom can tear. If this happens before ejaculation, stop immediately and put on a new condom. If it happens after ejaculation, carefully extract yourself with as much intact condom (and dignity) as you can. You and your partner should contact your healthcare providers to discuss whether post-exposure testing or treatment will be necessary.
  • A condom should cover the whole penis, from the tip of the glans right down to the base of the shaft. A short condom can leak and leaves more skin surface exposed for disease transmission. Remember, some STI’s get transmitted through body fluids but others only need skin-to-skin contact to spread.
  • Baggy might be okay for Kanye’s pants, but it’s not okay for his condoms – or yours. Loose condoms can fall off just when you need them most, they can leak and women report more discomfort when guys use them.

No need to search for a condom tailor. Your local grocery, drug, or big box store is stocked with condoms in all shapes, colors, and sizes. Experiment until you get the fit right. Do that penis proud! I know that in the heat of the moment it might seem like a buzz-kill to look for a condom.  But just remember this; when it comes to killing the mood, a few minutes of scrambling through your pockets is nothing – and I mean nothing – compared to the crying of a baby, the flowing of pus from your favorite body part, or the weeping of a herpes vesicle.

‘Nuff said.

Victoria Rentel, MD (OSU SHS)

Reference: Poor Fit Undermines Condom Use, Medpage Today, February 16, 2010

photo: pimpmyrubbish.co.uk

Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall: Ice Cream Headache Survives them All

abnormalbrain.com

From the British Medical Journal Archives (courtesy of NCBI ROFL) an ice cream study which answers the question humans have been asking themselves through the ages: Do ice cream-evoked headaches (ICE-H) happen in the winter like they do in the summer?

Forget cancer! Thank God there are scientists to study these critical issues. Fellow ice cream eaters, the answer is yes, you can get an ice cream headache in the winter, at least if you’re a Canadian middle-schooler.

This important contribution to the world of science was determined by randomizing 145 middle-schoolers in Canada during the winter to one of two groups, after obtaining informed consent regarding the risks and benefits of eating ice cream quickly.  One group was instructed to eat their ice cream slowly; the other to consume their 100cc portion in less than 5 seconds. Almost unheard of in randomized trials, there were no refusals to participate and no participants were lost to follow-up.

The findings? About a quarter of the speedy ice cream eaters reported ice cream-evoked headache, compared to about 13% of the pokey eaters. Of those afflicted with this dreaded ice cream complication, a little over half suffered more than 10 seconds, although all returned to normal eventually. Although researchers reported a lifetime prevalence of ICE-H in their study group of about 80%, nobody reported that they would be avoiding ice cream in the future.

Why is it that I am never recruited for studies like this? Who at The Ohio State University is willing to go further with this critical work and do the translational research necessary to determine if the ICE-H has the same prevalence with ice cream sandwiches, popsicles, and sherbet? Gelato? Jeni’s vs. Graeters? Let me be the first to volunteer myself for the sake of the advancement of knowledge.

Read this important contribution to the scientific literature @:

BMJ 2002;325:1445-1446 ( 21 December )

Victoria Rentel, MD (OSU SHS)

See Your Immune System In Action!

click to enlarge

Nerd alert! I apologize for yet another fabulously awesome (to a dork) visual of the human body in action, or at least part of the human body in action.

Behold… The mighty neutrophil chasing a Staph aureus straight outta Dodge!

This video has been around for a while. Shout out to Orac @ Respectful Insolence for posting it this week despite its relative old age in our brave new world of instant internet access.  It’s short and sweet. Give it a click:

I’m gonna get you Sucka’!

Next time you read about some horrible staph infection, think about this happening in your body all the time, because it is. We’re covered from head to toe with Staph aureus and our immune system and the creepy little bug duke it out all day and all night. (Getting itchy?) We have evolved a complex system of protection, only part of which involves white blood cells such as the stalwart neutrophil in this movie. Fortunately, thanks to those white blood cells, other more helpful bacteria, sebum, complicated acid-base balance,  good sanitation, quality nutrition, good hygiene, and blah blah blah, the bacteria lose 99.9% of the time. Crazy little cooties keep coming back for more! Even when we give up some ground, most of the time we can beat the bugs back with antibiotics and the few other tricks we have up our Staph-covered sleeves.

Victoria Rentel, MD
Dork-in-Residence

Reference: Crawling Neutrophil Chasing a Bacterium, Thomas P. Stossel (Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School), June 22, 1999

Gettin’ a little dirty may actually be good for you

photo: nymag.com

Bing Images

Science has done it again. Dirty pigs are healthier pigs. It has been proven. Don’t ask how, because it involved a lot of fetal pigs (which makes my undergraduate pig dissecting PTSD flare up), poop and blood.  But it also involved a lot of wallowing and I am ALL about science that proves that wallowing is good for you.

Sure, the title – Environmentally-acquired bacteria influence microbial diversity and natural innate immune responses at gut surfaces – scintillating as it is, might not immediately strike you as a defense of all that is good about being dirty. But pull up a chair and consider the dirty details.

Gut immunologists took baby pigs and sent them outside, inside or into a kind of antibiotic-laced biologic bubble. The guts of the outdoor, mud-wallowing pigs were full of healthier bacteria than the indoor pig guts. Not only was there more of the good stuff in outdoor beasts, there was also less harmful bacteria in the chute. Most cool and interesting, though, is that the bacterial composition of the piggies’ guts influenced the expression of immunologic genes: pristine, white-glove pork expressed more inflammatory genes and other icky inflammatory stuff.

I know what you’re thinking. Pigs aren’t human, Dr. Rentel. True. Based on this study I’m not going to build a heated pigsty with a giant HDTV for me and my kids in the backyard. There is, however, a growing, stinking, microbial-filled gooey heap of evidence that human interaction with bacteria is good. Why does the prevalence of autoimmune diseases and allergies keep going up? This study gives some very direct, powerful evidence as to how the cascade of autoimmune badness gets started. Okay, yes, in pigs, but pigs are a whole lot like us.

As my favorite infectious disease specialist in the whole wide world (Dr. George Gianakopoulos) used to say, “Nature abhors a vacuum. Kill the good bacteria and welcome in the bad.”  I’m not saying you should order dirt for take-out tonight.  But skipping the whole-body antimicrobial gel bath every day might not be a bad idea. 

Victoria Rentel, MD (Ohio State Student Health Services)

BMC Biology 2009, 7:79

News You Can’t Use – School of Rock!

Raise your goblet of rock!

In today’s installment of News You Can’t Use, a review of a 2006 article in the journal Ear & Hearing entitled, “Hearing in non-professional pop/rock musicians.”  That’s right, garage band rockers, I’ve got something to say to you.  And I’m writing it down because apparently you might not hear me if I told you to your face.

Musicians in the study were evaluated after five years of repeated exposure to loud, intense music. A significant proportion of those who didn’t wear ear protection experienced noticeable hearing loss (6 dB in the 3-8 kHz range).  In those who did wear ear protection, there was some hearing loss compared to age- and gender- matched controls, but it was more modest (2.4 dB). Nearly half of the unprotected musicians reported hypersensitivity to sound and/or tinnitus, a persistent and unpleasant ringing, buzzing, whining, screaming, roaring, or clicking sound.

“Thanks, boring old person,” you say to me, “but what about my music and my freedom?”  As boring and uncool as it might seem, if you want to continue to be free to hear your music, you better plug up your ears when you plug in your amp.  (By the way, orchestral musicians, you tend to have more noise-induced hearing loss than the general population as well and should also consider ear protection.)

Foam and silicone earplugs are inexpensive, readily available, and will provide some protection for your ears. You may feel a little cut off from the outside world, however, kind of like you’re under water.  Flanged musician’s earplugs cost a bit more ($10-15) but will provide better sound fidelity: they attenuate the volume evenly over all frequencies. For even better sound fidelity (at significantly higher cost) you can visit an audiologist for custom plugs made specifically for the needs of musicians.

Victoria Rentel, MD (Ohio State Student Health Services)

Ear Hear. 2006 Aug;27(4):321-30.

News You Can’t Use – Killer Coconuts and Falling Squirrels

This squirrel could've saved a life!

This is the first in what we hope are many installments of BuckMD’s latest online offering – News You Can’t Use!  We will scour the medical literature to bring you the latest (or completely out of date) medical news that has very little relevance to your life but is interesting, funny, weird and hopefully all of the above.  Today’s topic – killer cocunuts!

In 1984, scientists discovered that falling coconuts in the Pacific Islands accounted for 2.5% of admissions to the hospital in Papua, New Guinea. Said coconuts can weigh up to 10 pounds unhusked and can fall from a perch of up to 115 feet. Four cases of head injury secondary to deadly falling coconuts were described in an article in the Journal of Trauma (1984 Nov;24(11):990-1) including two instant fatalities. Recall from your physics class that momentum is conserved. These researchers have confirmed one of life’s inexorable truths – it is very bad for the momentum of a flying nut to be conserved in your head. 

Thankfully, closer to home here at The Ohio State University falling coconuts aren’t much of a threat.  Falling squirrels, however, are a fairly common event.  We at Student Health Services have managed more than our share of “Rodentia Gravitas” cases, and thankfully they rarely involve anything more serious than a few scratches on the arms and face.  While the injured students often report that they “did not see the squirrel coming,” they quickly get into the habit of searching the skies for signs of falling rodents.

Victoria Rentel, MD (Ohio State Student Health Services)