Could that glass of Chardonnay affect the condition of your skin?
Maybe, according to new research that found women with certain drinking patterns had a higher risk of developing rosacea, an inflammatory skin condition.
“We found white wine and liquor were significantly associated with a higher risk of rosacea,” said study senior author Wen-Qing Li. He’s an assistant professor of dermatology and epidemiology at Brown University.
Rosacea causes redness and flushing on the face and the neck. In some forms, acnelike outbreaks can form, and visible blood vessels can appear.
Genetics can play a role in the development of rosacea. In those with acnelike rosacea, their immune system may be reacting to a single bacterium, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
While red wine is often pinpointed as the beverage that can trigger rosacea flushing, Li said that that information tends to come from reports by patients who already have the disorder.
The new research focused on alcohol’s role in the development of rosacea. Li’s team evaluated nearly 83,000 women enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study II from 1991 to 2005.
The researchers collected information on alcohol intake every four years during a follow-up of 14 years. Over that time, nearly 5,000 new cases of rosacea occurred.
“For white wine, compared to never drinkers, [those who drank] one to three drinks per month had a 14 percent increased risk of rosacea. For five or more white wines a week, risk increased by 49 percent,” Li said.
For liquor, five or more drinks a week raised the risk of developing rosacea by 28 percent, the study found.
Li could not say if the link would hold true for men, as the study included only women. And, he points out that “it is just an association, it is not a causal relationship.”
Li isn’t sure exactly why white wine and liquor seem to increase the risk of rosacea. However, the researchers speculated that the white wine and liquor may weaken the immune system and contribute to the dilation of blood vessels.
For now, Li said, the message is to make physicians and consumers aware of the link.
The researchers also suspect that there are different biological reasons why white wine and liquor seem to increase the development of rosacea and why red wine seems to exacerbate the condition. But they don’t yet know what those differences are, the study authors said.
Dr. Carolyn Goh, a dermatologist at UCLA Medical Center, said the new findings add to knowledge about rosacea.
“It’s interesting that they found a difference between different types of alcohol,” she said.
One of the strengths of the research is the large number of women in the study, Goh said.
Meanwhile, she said, it’s known that drinking alcohol can make rosacea flare up in those already diagnosed. “In the past, people thought red wine would cause more flushing than white wine,” she said.
Besides alcohol, other common triggers in those who already have rosacea include sunlight, caffeine, hot and spicy foods, Goh said. People with the condition report different triggers, she said, so that list may not apply to all patients.
Treatments include topical creams and ointments, Goh said. Laser treatment can help the blood vessels that stay visible after periods of flushing. For patients who have pimples associated with rosacea, oral antibiotics can help, she said.
The study is published online April 20 in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.
One in five Americans has hearing loss so severe that it interferes with communication, said a 2011 study published in Archives of Internal Medicine. But there may be many more people who have “hidden hearing loss,” but remain undiagnosed because the damage wasn’t detected by commonly used hearing tests, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.
People who have hidden hearing loss appear to have normal hearing when their hearing is tested using audiograms — the gold standard for measuring hearing — where hearing is typically tested in a quiet room.
The reason some forms of hearing loss may go unrecognized in the clinic is that hearing involves a complex partnership between the ear and the brain. Researchers found that the central auditory system can compensate for significant damage to the inner ear by turning up its volume control, partially overcoming the deficiency, says study lead author Richard Salvi.
“You can have tremendous damage to inner hair cells in the ear that transmit information to the brain and still have a normal audiogram,” says Salvi. “But people with this type of damage have difficulty hearing in certain situations, like hearing speech in a noisy room. Their thresholds appear normal. So they’re sent home.”
The reason hearing loss isn’t detected lies in the way hearing signals travel to the brain: About 95 percent of sound input to the brain comes from the ear’s inner hair cells.
“These inner hair cells are like spark plugs in an 8-cylinder engine,” says Salvi. “A car won’t run well if you remove half of those spark plugs, but people can still present with normal hearing thresholds if they’ve lost half or even three-quarters of their inner hair cells.”
Ear damage reduces the signal that goes the brain. That results in problems hearing, but that’s not what’s happening here, because the brain “has a central gain control, like a radio, the listener can turn up the volume control to better hear a distant station,” Salvi says.
Sound is converted to neural activity by the inner hair cells in the auditory part of the ear, called the cochlea.
The neural signals then travel from the cochlea to the auditory nerve and into the central auditory pathway of the brain. Halfway up the auditory pathway the information is relayed into a structure known as the inferior colliculus, before finally arriving at the auditory cortex in the brain, where interpretation of things like speech take place.
For people with inner hair cell loss, sound is less accurately converted to neural activity in the cochlea, but it is amplified as it travels. Once the signal gets high enough to stimulate neurons in the brain, “It’s like your brain has a hearing aid that turns up the volume,” Salvi said.
Salvi says it’s unknown how many people might have this type of hearing loss, but many older people have difficulty hearing in a noisy environment.
Spotting hidden hearing loss could be as simple as adding background noise to hearing tests.
An experimental drug called LY411575 may offer hope to people with hearing loss caused by a loss of sensory hair cells in the inner ear. The tiny hairs are vital to hearing, since sound vibrations agitate them, causing them to send signals to the brain. When the hairs are destroyed, the brain no longer receives signals that result in hearing.
The new drug works by inhibiting a protein called Notch, which keeps stem cells in the inner ear — or cochlea — from developing into new sensory hair cells. In a study of sound-deafened mice, hearing was improved in the areas where the hair cells were replaced.
DENTON, Texas� Maria Paula Medina posted a dominant straight set victory but a short-handed UTEP tennis team was upended by Marshall, 4-1, on Thursday in the first round of the 2017 Conference USA Women�s Tennis Championship in Denton, Texas. The 14th seeded Miners (4-14), whose season has been plagued by injury, had to forfeit a double�s team on court three, giving the No. 3 Thundering Herd (14-9) a cushion in doubles play.
In doubles play, Raven Bennett and Duda Santos, both nursing injuries, forfeited their match on court three. The doubles point was decided when Milou Pietersz and Lois Wagenvoort fell to Anna Pomyatinskaya and Derya Turhan 6-2 on court one. Maria Paula Medina and Daphne Visscher�s close match with Rachael Morales and Maddie Silver was left unfinished at 4-4.
Though they were at a disadvantage going into doubles play, the Miners had a full line-up for singles play. Santos battled the Intercollegiate Tennis Association�s No. 117 ranked singles player in Marshall�s Turhan, dropping 6-0, 6-1. On court four, Wagenvoort fell to Pomyatinskaya 6-2, 6-1.
The Miners� first point came from Medina�s straight set dominance of the Herd�s Nikola Novackova, 6-3, 6-3 on court six. Bennett stole set one from Daniela Dankanych 7-5 but dropped the second set 6-2 at the No. 5 position. Pietersz, playing the No. 2, also won her first set against Silver 6-4, but slipped in a tight 6-5 set two.
Before Bennett and Pietersz�s matches were completed, Marshall�s Morales ended the match with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Visscher on court three, ending UTEP�s run in the tournament and 2016-17 season.
El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez discusses clean eating.
When it comes to eating clean, it�s often much easier than you think. Plus,�you rarely�have to alter the essence of your favorite dishes to achieve a cleaner plate. The key to turning them�into �a �clean� dish is to start from the root�the ingredients.
To build a cleaner plate, it first starts in the market where you choose your produce, whole grains, dairy, proteins, and other items. Look for ingredient lists that are short and contain no preservatives, artificial colorings, added sugars, and other processed ingredients.
Make sure you balance your plate by filling at least half with fruits and veggies, choosing whole grains for a fourth of your plate, and lean, clean meat for the remaining fourth.
To Convert A Recipe To Clean Recipe Look At The Ingredients & Substitute
Protein > Choose leaner meat, and limit meat portions such as pork and red meat to 3 ounces and chicken to 4.5 ounces per day. Seafood and plant-based proteins are encouraged. Look for meat that is grass-fed and raised without antibiotics or hormones.
Condiments, dressings and salsas >�Make your own, and nix the added sugars and excess salt.
While this recipe is almost completely clean, the marinade calls for brown sugar. For a cleaner sugar, replace 1� teaspoons of maple syrup for the 1 tablespoon of brown sugar.
�Lets take a look at the 7 minute and 9 minute workout.
The New York Times has a new super quick workout routine that you can do anywhere, even if you can�t make it to the gym today. I tried it, though, and… hey, wait, am I the only one actually doing these?
Short, intense workouts seem like a good idea on paper. If you�re not already working out, it�s probably because you feel like you don�t have time to get to the gym. But does anyone do these short workouts? Sure, I have nine minutes and some floor space, but do I want to get my work clothes sweaty? And if I�m going to the trouble of changing, why wouldn�t I just head out the door for a run, or turn on Sworkit or Nike Training Club and get something a little closer to a full workout?
After all, the seven-minute workout that got the New York Times started on their repertoire of super short workouts has an odd history. It was published in a scientific journal, but that doesn�t mean any scientists tested whether it was easy to stick to or whether it gave the promised results. Instead, it was designed using hints from previous research, aiming to give people a mini strength workout at a fast enough pace to count as cardio. The designers were coaches at a corporate wellness institute. In other words, people that your boss pays to make you exercise.
We love to talk about these short workouts, but I�m not seeing any evidence that people care to get in a quick couple of minutes of strength or circuit training. The new nine-minute workout dropped earlier this month, but I�ve scoured social media and found almost nobody enthusing or complaining about what it�s like to do this workout�just post after post sharing the fact that it exists.
So, How Is the Nine Minute Workout?
First of all, the nine minute workout actually takes 11 minutes. I just want you to know that going in. There are nine exercises, though, and you do each for one minute. Here�s the structure:
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One minute of squats, one minute of push-ups, one minute of mountain climbers.
Rest one minute.
One minute of forearm plank, one minute of jumping split squats, one minute of single-leg hip bridges.
Rest one minute.
One minute of burpees with push-ups, geez, hardcore. One minute of single leg toe touches. One minute of leg raises.
This seems like an exercise program that doesn�t know what it wants to be. The NYT touts it as a strength program, but then says it�s designed according to the �principles of high-intensity interval training�known as H.I.I.T.�
It ends up being a hybrid that doesn�t accomplish either. If you want to build strength by fatiguing your legs doing split squats, you�ll be done before the minute is out. But if you try to stretch out the exercises to fill a full minute, you�ll have to do them at a slower pace than HIIT requires.
And that�s exactly how this workout went. One minute felt way too long for some exercises, too short for others, and overall it didn�t really feel like a strength session or an interval workout. It was fine for what it was, though! A little something that challenges your body in a much better way than sitting at your desk or on your couch for the same amount of time. Still, if that�s your goal, you can find better exercise plans than this awkward one.
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