For The Union-Tribune
Vaccine news
For folks who believe vaccines work, here’s a shot in the arm:
Three recent studies looked at the effectiveness of specific vaccines, two estimating the difference in outcomes between vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.
According to STAT:
• An early estimate of the effectiveness of this year’s COVID shot showed its effectiveness in preventing hospitalization for the illness was about 45 percent in healthy older adults and 40 percent in those who were immunocompromised.
• This season’s influenza vaccines offered additional protection at all age levels in one of the worst flu seasons in years. All age groups were less likely to need outpatient medical care or hospitalization if they were vaccinated.
• A study looking at the impact of the human papillomavirus or HPV vaccine showed that in the period from 2008 to 2022, the incidence of cervical precancers declined 79 percent and the rate of higher grade precancers declined 80 percent in women aged 20 to 24, the age group most likely to be vaccinated.
Body of knowledge
Your ears and nose become bigger with age, but it’s not due to growth. They are being pulled by gravity, causing them to stretch roughly one-tenth of an inch every 10 years.
Counts
44 — Percentage of U.S. adults who expressed interest in medical aid in dying should they become terminally ill
Source: JAMA Network Open
Stories for the waiting room
Researchers are testing a new, noninvasive wearable device that monitors skin health by measuring the changing flux of gases, such as water vapor, volatile organic compounds and carbon dioxide, emitted by skin.
These emissions are associated with what’s happening beneath the skin, such as the presence of infections and the state of wound healing. The latter can be particularly important in patients with diabetes who often have sensory issues that complicate wound healing.
“What you see in diabetes is that even after the wound looks like it’s healed, there’s still a persistent impairment of that barrier,” said Matthew Flavin, assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech University.
Doc talk
Fasciculation — a muscle twitch
Phobia of the week
Belonephobia — fear of pins and needles
Never say diet
The Major League Eating speed-eating record for smoked bologna is 15.75 pounds in eight minutes, held by Joey Chestnut. A real achievement, even if the meat isn’t.
Best medicine
A psychiatrist has a group meeting with three of his most challenging patients.
He asks the first patient: “What’s 3 times 4?”
“1,484.”
Disappointed, the psychiatrist asks the second patient the same thing: “3 times 4?”
“Wednesday.”
He turns to patient #3: “3 times 4?”
The third patient answers: “12.”
The psychiatrist is pleasantly surprised. “How did you get to that answer?” he asks.
“Easy, I divided 1,484 by Wednesday.”
Observation
“You’re in pretty good shape for the shape you are in.”
— Dr. Seuss
Medical history
This week in 1924, the first U.S. portable electrical stethoscope was demonstrated in Chicago, Ill. to amplify the sounds of the human body. It was designed by the Western Electric Co. with Bell System engineers and physiologist Dr. Horatio B. Williams.
Med school
True or false: Veins look blue because the unoxygenated blood in them is blue.
Answer: False. Red portions of the visible light spectrum easily penetrate skin and become absorbed by hemoglobin in the blood. Blue light scatters when it hits skin and gets reflected back to your eye, causing veins to appear blue.
Last words
“And now a final word from our sponsor …”
— American writer and TV announcer Charles Gussman (1913-2000). Gussman was a prolific, successful writer of steamy romances and soap operas. He wrote the pilot episode of “Days of Our Lives,” which first aired in 1965 and is still being produced.
Gussman told his family he wanted his last words to be memorable. As his death approached, his daughter reminded him of his wish. Gussman removed his oxygen mask and uttered …
LaFee is vice president of communications for the Sanford Burnham Prebys research institute.
