A Study Shows Masks are Extremely Effective at Preventing Virus Spread
New research shows that masks are extremely effective at preventing the spread of CoVID-19. Previous research focused primarily on masks preventing the spread of the flu rather than CoVID-19. The new study tested the effectiveness of surgical masks at preventing the spread through droplets aerosolized particles.
“…surgical face masks could prevent transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza viruses from symptomatic individuals.”
The study found that CoVID-19 was detected in 30- 40% of particles in aerosols and droplets expelled by those not wearing a mask. However, no virus was detected in aerosols or droplets from those who wore a face mask.
Despite research indicating that wearing masks could prevent the spread of the virus, the CDC has not recommended that everyone wear N95 masks. Alternatively, they recommend that N95 masks are saved for healthcare personnel only. Currently, the CDC is recommending homemade/alternative masks that are not N95 masks, and recommending social distancing and handwashing instead of N95 masks.
A surgical N95 (also referred as a medical respirator) is recommended only for use by healthcare personnel (HCP) who need protection from both airborne and fluid hazards (e.g., splashes, sprays). These respirators are not used or needed outside of healthcare settings.”
The Trump administration has ordered 3M to stop supplying N95 masks to Canada however they have not yet recommended that everyone wear masks, although the CDC is expected to advise all citizens to wear masks, very soon.
Measures Taken to Decriminalize Psychedelics in Washington D.C
Earlier this year advances were taken in the early steps to decriminalize many psychedelics in Washington D.C. The Ballot initiative was given initial approval by the Board of Elections, and will now have to get the approval of their title and summary statement. If the ballot initiative goes through, psychedelics will be of the lowest priority in local law enforcement. The measure does not remove any penalties. Decriminalize Nature D.C is the organization behind this ballot initiative and had many advocates speak in favor of decriminalization at its original hearing.
Decriminalization can only bring safety and knowledge around the therapeutic use of substances that are already widely available, It will allow therapist to speak candidly to clients, researchers and students to pursue areas of study without fear of retribution, and an overall more educated society.”
Last year Denver, Colorado became the first city to decriminalize psychedelics and several more cities have followed suit. Many people have advocated the legalization of psilocybin mushrooms because of their therapeutic purposes.
Earlier this week Elon Musk purchased 1255 FDA approved ventilators from Chinese manufactures. Tesla is currently in the process of getting them distributed and installed, in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. Tesla has also supplied 500,000 masks for health care workers. This occurred after Musk tweeted out that Tesla would manufacture ventilators if there was a shortage.
We expect to have over ~1,200 [ventilators] to distribute this week. Getting them delivered, installed & operating is the harder part.
Musk had previously been dismissive over the outbreak of the virus tweeting out “The Coronavirus panic is dumb” later clarifying that he believes the panic to be more dangerous than the virus itself. He later reported that Tesla is working on ventilators although it is not clear how long it will take to manufacture these ventilators, it could be months.
Other American companies such as Ford and General Motors have pledged to manufacture medical supplies at this time, however, they are still in the early stages of planning and have not actually begun manufacturing supplies yet.
This is such a critical time for America and the world. It is a time for action and cooperation. By coming together across multiple industries, we can make a real difference for people in need and for those on the front lines of this crisis. At Ford, we feel a deep obligation to step up and contribute in times of need, just as we always have through the 117-year history of our company.”
Despite steps being taken by the companies, the president has not ordered these companies to manufacture medical supplies through the Defense Production Act, which was invoked on Wednesday, and the decision to manufacture medical supplies is up to the discretion of each company.
Is going vegan the best thing for the environment?
Animal agriculture is the second-largest contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gases, making up 42% of all emissions after fossil fuels. More people than ever before are cutting back on their meat and dairy consumption, advocating for things like “Meatless Monday” and “Veganuary”, while vegan and vegetarian diets are becoming more and more popular.
This begs the question, what would happen if the entire world went vegan? What does that mean not only for the environment but for our health?
The Case For Going Vegan
On average, producing a pound of beef requires upwards of 1,800 gallons of water. Similarly, a gallon of milk requires 2000 gallons of water to produce. However, only around 900 gallons of water are used during the production process for a gallon of almond milk. Studies show that anywhere from 40-50% of the water used in the United States is used for animal agriculture. A vegan diet, on average, requires 300 gallons of water a day compared to a meat-eating diet requiring 4,000 gallons of water a day. In addition to the massive amounts of water, studies show than anywhere between 30 and 50% of Earth’s habitable land is used for animal agriculture (this includes crops grown to feed livestock). Research shows that if everyone went vegan we could reduce global farmland by as much as 75%, and on an individual level, going vegan could reduce your carbon footprint by 73%.
There are several problems with the animal agriculture industry. Animals are commonly packed together in tight spaces without room to move around. Due to their close living quarters, animals are sick or prone to sickness and are often preemptively pumped full of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance is an epidemic in our country currently with 80% of all our antibiotics being given to animals. CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operations) Animals are usually injected with animal growth hormones and fed diets designed to increase their size, so they produce as much meat as possible. For years “cage-free” or “free-range” products have been marketed as a better, more humane alternative but in reality, these terms have little to no regulation and oftentimes these animals are still stored in inhumane environments.
Problems With Going Vegan
Many popular vegan foods are not as healthy as advertised. Take the “Impossible burger” for example. The Impossible Burger is a processed “veggie burger” well known for its’s meat-like texture, however, the burger is made with GMO’s and has tested positive for Glyphosate, “…levels of glyphosate were 11x that of the Beyond Meat burger.”
Being vegan doesn’t necessarily mean you’re eating healthily. You can chow down on junk food – and miss out on vital nutrients – whether you eat meat or not. For example, vegan diets are naturally low in calcium, vitamin D, iron, vitamin B12, zinc and omega-3 fatty acids.
It’s a common misconception that going vegan is healthier than eating meat; there are lots of “junk food vegans.” But a vegan who eats processed foods daily would benefit from switching to a diet of unprocessed foods with locally sourced grass-fed organic beef.
Some studies indicate that we could improve the environment by going vegan, but that human health would suffer. Vegans are often nutrient deficient in B12’s, Iron, Omega-3’s a and other nutrients found in meat and dairy products.
Fair Trade Issues
You may be surprised to know that many of your favorite vegan foods are leaving behind a larger negative impact than originally thought. Foods such as cashews, avocados, bananas, and chocolate have many fair trade issues associated with them. Additionally, many popular vegan foods leave behind a significant carbon footprint during manufacturing and transit. In fact, in some cases, foods shipped across the world leaves behind a larger carbon footprint than buying meat locally and sustainably.
Avocado imports have doubled over the last decade, with more than 2.2 billion pounds of avocados imported in 2018. The U.S gets 87% of avocado imports from Mexico, however many of the people in Mexico can’t afford to buy avocados because of the high demand in the U.S. Producing one pound of avocados uses 72 gallons of water. Over 20,000 hectares of land are converted into avocado farmland each year, including land which is designated for the Monarch Butterfly biosphere reserve. In addition to all the environmental impacts, criminal gangs have taken to stealing avocados and taking over farms when things slow down in the drug trafficking business.
Cashews are one of the most popular nuts in America and are popular amongst vegans due to their texture, flavor, and protein content. Cashews are commonly made into vegan cheese and other similar vegan dairy alternatives. India produces 60% of the Cashews the world consumes, however in India they are considered a luxury, so much so that workers are often checked to make sure they are not smuggling cashews outside of factories. Factory workers often suffer back and joint pain and have a difficult time-saving money due to low wages and were only recently allowed restroom breaks while working. Additionally, during the deshelling process workers suffer chemical burns to the skin and often are not provided with proper supplies to protect their skin and often times cannot afford to buy supplies themselves.
The Case For Omnivores Eating
Instead of getting rid of meat altogether, studies show that alternative practices such as regenerative agriculture may actually be the key to fixing the problem. The goal of regenerative agriculture is achieving a carbon negative footprint, through carbon sequestration by a variety of different methods such as no-tilling, or minimum tillage, cover crops, crop rotation, composting, and providing their pasture-raised animals with healthy and diverse diets. In some studies, regenerative agriculture is shown to leave less of a carbon footprint than meatless alternatives such as the impossible burger.
Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services.
Studies show that cows can help with carbon sequestration through proper grazing. Plants absorb CO2, and then CO2 is pushed through the roots into the ground and stored there. When animals (mainly cows) are able to graze on the land enough to promote healthy plant growth but not so much that they kill the plants, more carbon is sequestered through the earth thus making cattle that are raised in regenerative agriculture settings, carbon-neutral and in some cases carbon negative.
Look for meat that is “Pastured” or “pasture-raised”, this is meat that has been raised in a pasture, and best emulates natural behaviors. Pasture-raised animals can also help contribute to healthy soil, through animal waste and regenerative agriculture. When buying meat look for antibiotic-free meat labeled Organic, or raised without antibiotics. These are the only labels promising antibiotic-free meat. Shop for beef that is grass-fed and avoid beef that is grass-fed grain-finished. Grain finished beef is beef that is fed a lot of grain in a short amount of time to fatten them up. Animals that are fed proper diets are better for your health. Buy meat that is sourced locally from smaller-scale farms. You’ll find that the animals are generally treated better promoting natural habits and behaviors in the animals, your carbon footprint will be lessened, and you’ll have the opportunity to support small and local businesses.
Just like in humans, grain-fed animals have an extremely high amount of inflammation. This inflammation leads to a high amount of inflammatory omega-6 fats in the tissues of the animals, and these fats are transferred to us when we eat them. When animals eat the things they are supposed to, like grass, clovers, shrubs, and other colorful things, (how many colorful grains can you think of?) they end up with a much higher level and density of nutrients.
Can going vegan help reduce your carbon footprint? The simple answer is, yes, it can. To do it right, eat unprocessed whole foods, and reap the biggest benefit both for your health and for the climate. On a global scale, many studies show that the best thing we can do right now is to grow our own food if possible, shop for local food, radically reduce meat intake, and eat sustainable meat.
Orcas have long been a topic of controversy at Seaworld due to their inhumane treatment and the physical toll taken on their health because of it. Over recent years small changes have been made in favor of animal welfare, however, Seaworld has faced controversy with claims that these decisions are purely profit-driven, and drastic enough changes to animal welfare have not yet been made.
Orcas are extremely social, traveling and hunting in pods of up to 40. Females carry babies for 17 months and often nurse for up to 2 years, then waiting between 3 and 10 years to breed again. Orcas are extremely intelligent and communicate using echolocation and sounds that are recognized by other members of the pod. Orcas eat a very diverse diet of different types of fish, squids, penguins and other ocean mammals. This diet is often not well mimicked in captivity, leading to health problems. In addition to a diverse diet, Orcas swim up to 40 miles a day and dive anywhere between 100 and 500 feet a day, several times a day. Orcas in captivity do not have access to enough room to mimic this natural behavior.
Orca Reproduction in Captivity
Capturing Orcas from the wild has been illegal since 1972, resulting in Seaworld breeding animals in captivity. In the wild female orcas begin reproducing around age 15, however, in captivity females as young as 8 have been reported pregnant. Females typically breed every 3 to 10 years, however, in captivity, they are artificially inseminated to breed constantly. There have also been reported problems of inbreeding between animals.
As of 2016 Seaworld has reported that it will no longer be breeding Orcas, and the current Orcas at Seaworld will be the last ones. Although this can be seen as a large step in the right direction for animal welfare, it should not be overlooked that this decision is likely profit-based. Stocks and profits at Seaworld have plummeted in recent years due to controversy over animal welfare mainly caused by the “Blackfish” documentary. Profits would have continued to plummet if changes were not made, and Seaworld has worked to make as little change as possible while maintaining profits.
We understand some customers are upset and you may feel betrayed, but in a simple way, the data and trends showed it was either a SeaWorld without whales or a world without SeaWorld,” he said. “We are an organization that needs to have cash flow to [succeed] and unfortunately, the trends were not in our favor.” -Seaworld CEO Joel Manby
In captivity, Orcas are often plagued with numerous health problems. Most commonly, male Orcas develop collapsed dorsal fins, most likely as a result of not being able to mimic their natural swimming patterns while in captivity. Additionally, Orcas develop severe teeth issues due to grinding their teeth against their tanks out of stress and attempts to escape. This causes severe nerve damage and infection that is often preemptively treated with antibiotics, leading to antibiotic resistance.
The main cause of Orca death in captivity is from Pneumonia and similar infections that cannot be cured with antibiotics due to antibiotic resistance. These health problems are rarely seen in the wild, and almost never seen to this extreme. Until recently it was widely believed that Orcas were only expected to live until age 30, however, their maximum lifespan is actually closer to 60 or 70. At Seaworld, Orcas have an average lifespan of 14.
Seventy orcas have been born in captivity around the world since 1977 (not counting another 30 that were stillborn or died in utero), according to records in twodatabases maintained by cetacean experts. Thirty-seven of them, including Kayla, are now dead. Only a handful of wild-caught orcas have lived past age 30. No captive-born orca yet has.”
Although Seaworld has made changes there are still many animal welfare issues that go on behind close doors involving many different animals. Former Seaworld employees reported that all decisions are made by corporate, and are profit-driven. One former employee has reported that when trainers speak out against animal cruelty they are fired. This treatment of animals and lower-level employees is a result of corporate greed with one thing in mind: making as much money as possible.
New Study Shows Gut Bacteria May Alter the Aging Process
A recent study done by an international research team led by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore finds that microorganisms in the gut may alter the aging process. With research like this, the goal is to eventually be leading to food-based treatment to slow it down. Over the last 20 years research has already shown the important role the microbial species are playing in our nutrition, physiology, metabolism, and behavior. The study was conducted using mice. The medical team transplanted gut microbes from 24-month-old mice to germ-free 6-week old mice. After just 8 weeks the young mice showed production of neurogenesis (Neurons in the brain) and increased intestinal growth.
Professor Brian Kennedy, director of the Centre for Healthy aging at the National University of Singapore, who provided an independent view, said, “It is intriguing that the microbiome of an aged animal can promote youthful phenotypes in a young recipient. This suggests that the microbiota with aging have been modified to compensate for the accumulating deficits of the host and leads to the question of whether the microbiome from a young animal would have greater or less effects on a young host. The findings move forward our understanding of the relationship between the microbiome and its host during aging and set the stage for the development of microbiome-related interventions to promote healthy longevity.”
The increased neurogenesis was caused by an enrichment of gut microbes that produce a specific short-chain fatty acid (Butyrate). Butyrate is produced through microbial fermentation of dietary fibers in the lower intestinal tract and stimulates the productivity of a pro-longevity hormone called FGF2, which contributes to regulating the body’s metabolism, While we age butyrate is decreased. It was found that microbes collected from old mice had the ability to support neural growth in younger mice. These results can lead to conducting research into rather or now Butyrate might be able to help repair and rebuild in case of stroke and spinal damage.
New Study Shows Sunlight Improves Gut Health
A recent study has shown how the sun can help improve gut health. A study was conducted with 21 women who spent the winter in Canada, and as a result, were vitamin D insufficient. At the beginning of the study, researchers took stool samples and blood samples, in order to test the gut microbiome diversity, and Vitamin D levels, respectively. Research has already shown that UVB exposure can trigger gut microbiome changes in rodents. Prior to the start of the study twelve out of the 21 women were taking vitamin D supplements before the study, according to their samples, had higher levels of Vitamin D and more Gut diversity than those who did not take Vitamin D supplements regularly. At the end of the study, the results showed that short exposure to NB-UVB light did increase vitamin D and added diversity to the gut microbiome.
“Prior to UVB exposure, these women had a less diverse and balanced gut microbiome than those taking regular vitamin D supplements. UVB exposure boosted the richness and evenness of their microbiome to levels indistinguishable from the supplemented group, whose microbiome was not significantly changed.”
Nearly 70% of Americans suffer from a vitamin D deficiency, and 80% of the body’s Vitamin D requirement is met through skin exposure to UVB light. Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin however it is crucial for important processes in the body. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble hormone your body makes when your skin is exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D is known as the Sunshine Vitamin because the skin produces Vitamin D when exposed to certain wavelengths found in phototherapy modulating cell It is not found in many whole foods but is added to some processed food and is available in supplement form. Vitamin D is known as the sunshine vitamin because the skin produces vitamin D when exposed to certain wavelengths in phototherapy and is optimal for modulating cell growth, optimizing neuromuscular and immune functions and helping the gut absorb calcium. However, Chronic Vitamin D deficiency is associated with Bone diseases, and low levels of vitamin D, (but not necessarily chronically deficient) can cause Accelerating aging, high blood pressure, behavioral problems in adolescents, and elevated leptin levels.
