The Will To Live

"I thought, 'Oh my God, I can't believe how small she is. We weren't expecting anyone this small. I was stunned, frankly."
"We just sat by her bedside the first six hours. I thought her chances of making it probably weren't good. I told the folks every hour I would update them, but there's a good chance she's going to die."
"Many babies like this go home on oxygen, which I thought she probably would, but no, she weaned off of it [she was breastfeeding well and had no need of a feeding tube]."
"The fact that she's done so well is just such a reward, and just makes the whole team feel wonderful."
Dr. Paul Wozniak, neonatologist, Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women & Newborns, San Diego

"It was the scariest day of my life. I just felt very uncomfortable, and I thought maybe this is part of the pregnancy."
"I kept telling them she's not going to survive, she's only 23 weeks."
"But that hour [doctors telling the baby's father he would have but an hour with the newborn before her death] turned into two hours, which turned into a day, which turned into a week."
Mother of "micro-preemie", name withheld on request

"For comparison, at birth she was roughly the same weight as a large apple or a child's juice box", said Trisha Khaleghi, senior vice president and chief executive of the hospital where a premature infant was born weighting 8.6 ounces. That weight and the vastly abbreviated gestation appeared at first to mark the newborn's fate; doctors did not expect her to survive, and nor in fact did her parents. Before her delivery, doctors thought they would be dealing with a baby just under a pound in weight at 400 grams, so when she arrived much tinier, they were in shock.

The baby, named by hospital staff while she remained in hospital as Saybie, is believed to be the world's smallest infant to survive such an early birth. A database maintained by the University of Iowa, Tiniest Babies Registry, indicated that baby Saybie weighted seven grams less than the previous smallest, a baby girl born in 2015, in Germany.

Saybie's mother, halfway through her pregnancy suddenly felt peculiar. A medical examination revealed that she had preclampsia, a condition which is known to cause high blood pressure, and which, if left untreated, can lead to serious, even fatal, complications for mother and baby. According to Dr. Dana Chortkoff who delivered Saybie, the mother had "severely elevated blood pressure"; if the baby were to be saved, it was imperative that she be delivered.

The survival rate in the United States for babies born so prematurely is about 20 percent, so the odds for survival were not great. Saybie wasn't breathing when she was born but she "had a good heart rate", said Dr. Wozniak, leading her parents to make the decision that with a heart rate "they wanted everything done" that might enhance her opportunity to survive against the odds. The baby's diminutive size was a challenge even to access properly-sized medical equipment.

The resuscitation beds' built-in scales could not even register her weight, since they weren't able to go below 300 grams. The first order of business for the neonatal team was a breathing tube. They started with a tube the size of a juice-box straw, cut it down to comparative size, and were able to insert it. The baby was warmed, dried off, given medicine to aid her breathing, and then the wait began.

Medical staff observed that the baby gradually improved over time, gaining weight as they continued to be concerned over the types of life-threatening medical challenges such micro-preemies face; challenges such as brain bleeds, lung and heart issues, but Saybie "experienced virtually none" of the expected complications. Little joyful signs were plastered on the walls around the crib that Saybie was placed in, keeping track of her weight and milestones.

"No more breathing tube", read one of those signs. Another said "Tiny But Mighty."

This April photo shows Saybie at four months old. She was born in December at 23 weeks and three days into her mother's pregnancy. (Sharp HealthCare/Associated Press)

Dr. Wozniak looks beyond the present time and all the hurdles that the baby has somehow managed to transcend. The host of health complications that potentially could have been deadly for a premature infant born before 28 weeks, failed to materialize. Nearly five months after her birth and the prolonged stay in the neonatal intensive care unit, Saybie went home with her parents, a "healthy 5-pound infant".

At last contact between Dr. Wozniak and the baby's mother, the tiny girl's weight was 6 pounds, 2 ounces "and doing great". Still, worries Dr. Wozniak, things could eventually be more concerning as she matures. Saybie could develop mild vision problems, fine motor issues, language delays or other learning disabilities, not known to appear before such infants are of school age. A protocol of regular visits to the hospital's NICU Follow-Up Clinic is set to ensue to help promote her health and growth.

Baby Saybie is believed to be the world's tiniest micro-preemie. She weighed about half a pound at birth, but is five pounds in this photo, taken Tuesday. (Sharp HealthCare/Associated Press)

Threat to a Primeval Forest

"The bark beetle has been a part of the ecosystem for hundreds of years."
"This phenomenon is a natural adaptation to the new climate situation."
"All the time, there is a worry that they will start logging again."
Adam Bohdan, biologist, Wild Poland Foundation

"Poland will respect the verdict [of the EU’s highest court ruling in 2018 that logging in the UNESCO-protected Białowieża forest, permitted by the Polish government, is illegal]."
"The Białowieża forest is our national heritage. All the activities have been undertaken with its preservation in the best possible condition for present and future generations in mind."
Henryk Kowalczyk, Poland's environment minister

"Białowieża has beautiful powers to regenerate itself – if it is left alone."
"If you plant new trees in logged parts of the natural forest, you risk turning it into a managed wood, and we have more than enough of those in Poland."
Kasia Jagiełło, Greenpeace, Poland

"This is a huge victory for all defenders of Białowieża forest."
"Hundreds of people were heavily engaged in saving this unique, ancient woodland from unthinkable destruction."
James Thornton, chief executive, green law firm ClientEarth

The ECJ has ruled that Poland’s decision to allow logging in the primeval Białowieża forest is illegal. Photograph: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP/Getty Images

In Poland's Bialowieza woodland, about 1,425 square kilometers in size, extending into Belarus, the sound of Polish nobility and royalty calling to hounds once rang through the forest as they hunted the animals that still inhabit the area. Bison herds were reintroduced in the wake of the last one hunted in 1919. Now, the forest is the habitat of Europe's largest bison herd, an animal the Poles call 'wisent'.

In this natural setting, hundreds of bird species make their home, and the ambiance is filled with their distinctive songs.

The forest is treasured for its wild state, as the home of thousands of ancient trees, one of Europe's last remaining primeval forests. It is linked to an ecosystem fairly untouched from the time pf the last Ice Age, when glaciers receded, over ten thousand years ago. A year ago, the European Court of Justice ordered that logging in the forest come to an end, as a clear threat to the forest, deemed a United Nations World Heritage site.

Heavy machinery used by loggers to cut down thousands of the forest's ancient trees have left gaping spaces in the forest canopy. And on the forest floor, tracks of the logging equipment left their signature deep gouges, scarring the forest, the palpable signature of logging operations where none should have been permitted.

But loggers were given clear permission to proceed with logging by the country's governing Law and Justice party which chose to ignore the EU order to cease and desist initially, but changed tack when it faced a fine of about $124,000 (100,000 euros) for each day the directive was violated. Environmentalists are concerned now that Warsaw plans to increase the wood quota for hundreds of square kilometers outside the boundaries of the forest.

The forest is home to Europe's largest herd of nearly extinct bison   AFP

The protected part of the Bialowieza woodland had been left intact, unlike many of the Continent's other ancient forests, many of which were razed. Others of their kind were transformed into cultivated versions of the ancient forests they once were, to reflect intense control, imposing on the old growth forests that failed to be protected, a neat, nursery-like presence, quite unlike their natural state.

In its natural state, the forest floor is strewn with fallen trees, common to a climax forest, which enriches the humus of the forest floor by gradual decomposition where thousands of species of insects and fungi do their work, feeding on rotting foliage and branches to help ultimately produce new life from the nutrients absorbed by the forest floor, to nurture new growth.

"There is more life in a dead spruce than a living one", commented Rafal Kowalczyk, head of the Mammal Research Institute at the Polish Academy of Sciences, recently touring Bialowieza Forest.



The latest pretext for government to once again permit logging in the ancient forest preserve, is the presence of the hairy little bark beetle. The male beetle bores into the spruce trees, and a chamber is created. When the male mates with several females, they deposit dozens of eggs in the chamber where the resulting larvae feed on the vascular tissue of the tree, which often dies.

An increase of the presence of the beetles has been brought about by climate change, with warmer winters failing to destroy many of the beetles, as occurred in the past. The infestation was seen to be devastating large tree tracts in the forest. Many environmental scientists felt the best course of action would be to allow nature to take its course.

The Polish government, however, ordered a large-scale logging campaign in 2016. New logging orders in the heritage forest impelled thousands of protesters to descend on the forest to form human blockades in hopes of stopping the logging machinery. The protests failed to convince the government of Poland to cease logging operations.

Only when the European Union stepped in to use its legal heft on a member state of the EU did the government back down, responding to threats of financial penalties should the logging not cease. Nature has stepped in as she always does, replacing new life in the absence of the oldt. The problem with the bark beetles is relevant enough, yet no easy solutions have presented themselves.

Author: Frédéric Demeuse

Lifestyle Habits : You Decide

"Obesity is unique in that some doctors and much of society feel comfortable moralizing about it."
"Lifestyle has the ability to both treat and prevent a ton of medical problems, but the only one we seem to moralize about is obesity."
Yoni Freedhoff, co-founder, Bariatric Medical Institute, Ottawa

"It's clearly absolute nonsense to think that the current obesity crisis has been caused by a deficit of willpower."
"For that to be true, willpower would have had to have collapsed in every continent of the globe simultaneously across men, women, people of all ages. It's really bizarre that we still want to view that as the main cause of obesity rather than looking for environmental causes, but people just cling onto these ways of thinking."
"We're living in a world in which we're being sold a huge surfeit of calories every day. So you can easily become overweight or obese just simply by choosing among the affordable foods that are available to you."
"We should be so much more critical of the people selling us the food, and so much less critical of ourselves. It makes me upset to think about how many people, especially women, internalize this huge sense of guilt around food and a sense we should be doing better, and we're lacking in willpower when actually the choices we're being offered are crazy. Completely crazy, inhuman levels of choice."
"I just wish we would stop beating ourselves up so much and stop believing there has to be one absolute true answer. Because food isn't really like that. As omnivores, we've always eaten a range of foods; we've muddled along, we've adapted to environments. That middle ground gets lost."
Bee Wilson, author, The Way We Eat Now

"As insulin goes up, the body stores body fat. That's the job of insulin, to tell our body to store body fat. If insulin does not go up, then your body will use it in other ways. It won't store the body fat."
"If you eat 100 calories of cookies versus 100 calories of avocado, the minute you put it in your mouth, the hormonal response is completely and utterly different."
"If you eat cookies, insulin goes up and  your body stores body fat. If you eat avocado, insulin does not go  up. Your body tends to burn body fat because it still needs energy to run the liver and so on."
"All diets work in the short term. But we've been ignoring the long-term problem of insulin resistance. [The solution is to establish the balance between feeding and fasting]; We get so bogged down in carbs and fat and protein that we lose sight of the really important thing. And that's where I wanted to refocus people; 'Hey, we need to look at this meal timing question because it's a question of what to eat and a question of when to eat."
Jason Fung, nephrologist, Toronto author, The Obesity Code

Teenagers, according to Psychology Today, who think of themselves as overweight are so burdened with the vision of themselves as unattractive, unreflective of the ideal body shape, they are likelier than other teens to attempt suicide and to suffer depression. This, aside from the fact that we are killing ourselves, slowly but surely; shortening our lifespans, exposing ourselves to greater likelihood of acquiring life-sapping chronic diseases, by our lifestyle choices; above all by the kinds of food we energize our bodies with.

A major study published recently in The Lancet medical journal points out that poor diets kill 11 million people globally every year, more people dying of that cause than those who die as a result of tobacco use and second-hand smoke. Food security is viewed as having an impact even in developed countries such as Canada as well as elsewhere, while generally speaking most people live with a plethora of food choices. Rates of overweight and obesity have tripled since the mid-1970s.

Obesity is linked to increased risk of many disease, including some cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes -- which itself can lead to the previously-named conditions. We are faced with a situation where omnipresent food advertising and the ready availability of calorie-dense, nutrition-absent food rules society. Never has that old adage, "everything in moderation" been more critical to healthy outcomes than at the present time. "Eat less, move more", seems like a simple formula for attaining and maintaining better health, but it seems to fall on deaf ears.

When combined with healthy eating, regular physical activity will help you lose weight and stay at a healthy weight.

In a survey of over 1,500 American adults, three-quarters of the respondents reported their belief that the best treatment for obesity is summoning the self-discipline to go on a diet. Scientific evidence appears, confoundingly, to reject that belief, citing the fact that most grocery supermarkets offer up to 40,000 different food products. Even visiting one of the ubiquitous convenience stores exposes consumers to a wide array of convenience food products, foods whose wholesome quality has been processed and adulterated.

So yes, we should be critical of the manufacturers of this ersatz food. And we should tune out the advertisements that we and our children are exposed to constantly. We should indulge from time to time in a bit of introspection, gauging the food choices we select and going a little further to imagine how healthy those choices are, and what, in the final analysis they do over time to our bodies. The thing of it is, most people can't bother, because they're busy, distracted, time is short, and truth to tell the very thought of preparing whole foods to form a nutritious meal is unappealing.

In this social climate it isn't only the food processing manufacturers that can be held responsible for appealing to peoples' willingness to buy pre-prepared meals heavy on taste-good but lethal amounts of salt, fat and sugar, but those on the other end of the spectrum whose existence is dependent on the desperation of people to lose the extra weight they gain from improvident food choices, who offer a dizzying array of fad diets. Consumers accustom themselves to buying food geared to put on weight, and when they become overweight and obese look for quick solutions to lose that weight.



And along come diets like keto, paleo, carnivore, pegan and fodmap, among the many others that proliferate and promise solutions. Weight loss is celebrated, and soon afterward what melted off returns. Simply because most people after losing weight, lose the diet and return to their 'normal' food consumption habits. A professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota in 2013 updated an exhaustive review  of diets, along with a two-year follow-up. Professor Traci Mann found that while people lost weight in the first nine to 12 months, the following two to five years saw them regain it all with the exception of one kilogram (2.1 lb.).

As for a non-dieter group used for comparison, they gained an average of 544 grams (1.2 lb.) over the same period. In her article published in the American Psychological Association, Professor Mann summarized the situation such that "the dieters  had little benefit to show for their efforts, and the non-dieters did not seem harmed by their lack of effort." This, in an era where advocates of good health succeeded in having all prepackaged food labels reflect calories related to the constituents of the food enclosed in those packages.

Instead of curtailing eating habits contributing to increased rates of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, hypertension and other diseases, national health organizations such as the Canadian Diabetes Association, Heart and Stroke Foundation continue to support calorie counting. According to Dr. Fung, caloric reduction does not reflect a realistic option for weight loss: "It's my opinion that this doesn't work. Look at the obesity epidemic. The only thing (doctors) ever said was 'calories in, calories out'."

Dr. Fung champions another regimen; meal timing. Fasting routinely. In that at one time in the not so distant past people were accustomed to eating breakfast, then fasting, eating nothing else until the evening meal. Breakfast at 8 a.m., dinner at 6 p.m.; ergo a 14-hour fast. 

"There are a handful of trendy, reputable, diets people follow and see positive results on, including keto, Paleo, Whole30, and intermittent fasting. Now, a recent study published in the journal Obesity found that intermittent fasting is an effective way for women who are overweight and obese to drop excess weight. Technically, IF is not a diet that instructs you on what to eat, but rather an eating plan that tells you when to eat, and it involves committing to a cycle of eating and fasting within a set amount of time. See the difference? This study showed that women not only lost weight, but they improved their overall health as well."       
Cheyenne Buckingham, Eat This, Not That!

Pancreatic Cancer: Prognosis, Treatment

"We have better chemotherapy drugs [for pancreatic cancer] than in the past, but those standards of care aren't reaching patients.Spreading the reach of the standards of care, starting with a consultation with a medical oncologist, would have a big impact."
Dr. Natalie Coburn, surgical oncologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto

"I'm going to fight this [pancreatic cancer diagnosis]."
"That stuff [chemotherapy] really kicks the slats out of you.. [I suffered bouts of] deep sadness [following chemotherapy sessions]."
Alex Trebek, Jeopardy host

"[By the time tumours are diagnosed, 80 percent are inoperable] and have spread beyond what we can offer for cure."
"The outlook has drastically changed, but the stigma still remains that this is a  highly fatal cancer and it probably isn't worth treating."
"But everyone should have the opportunity for treatment. We could achieve better results by getting more people to an oncologist and better access to best practice treatments right now than with new and often expensive experimental drugs in the future."                                                                                                "We also want to raise awareness amongst policy-makers about gaps in the health care system -- how can we ensure people are accessing the standard of care? How can we make it easier to reach a specialist in a timely manner?"     Dr. Julie Hallet, surgical oncologist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Host of Jeopardy Alex Trebek is only the latest celebrity to be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. (Ben Hider/Getty Images)

A new study  recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, and authored by University of Toronto-associated surgical oncologist Natalie Coburn, co-authored by Julie Hallet, explores the reality that most people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer fail to be offered the opportunity to extend their lives, a reflection of attitudes within the medical community that the disease, usually diagnosed when it has gone beyond mediation, is no longer worth the effort of treatment.

Over ten thousand people diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer over an eleven-year period in Ontario saw only 38 percent receiving chemotherapy or were given the option of a combination of chemo and radiation. Of the total number, one-third weren't referred to a medical oncologist specializing in chemotherapy, contrasting sharply with the high rates of treatment offered for other advanced cancers.

Patients with colorectal cancer, for example see a 90 percent opportunity of being treated by a medical oncologist while the majority receive chemotherapy. The diagnosis of advanced (metastatic) pancreatic cancer, with its spread to other parts of the body, has a particularly grim prognosis. This reflects the fact that the disease has a tendency to spread without the appearance of obvious symptoms such as upper abdominal pain or jaundice which occurs when the tumour blocks the bile ducts.

That there is no screening for pancreatic cancer, only exacerbates the situation. This form of cancer represents the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada, striking men and women equally. The reality currently is, however, that more up-to-date chemotherapy regimens have the capacity to extend mean survival rates for up to a year. Half the patients receiving chemo are able to survive for a year, while the other half can realize a longer survival time. Without therapy, survival is three to six months.

The study used records of 10,881 patients diagnosed with advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma, accounting for about 80 percent of all cases, between the years 2005 to 2016. Of that number, roughly 27 percent received chemotherapy, while 11 percent benefited from both chemo and radiation. A third of the diagnosed patients were not referred to an oncologist; of those that were, about 60 percent were not given therapy.

Some people refuse chemotherapy because of the toxic side-effects, and the researchers involved in the study did not set out to identify why it was that people weren't given assessments or failed to be treated. And Dr. Hallet, who understands why some people might decide to forego treatment, feels everyone should have the opportunity to opt for it, or decline it.

Axial CT image with i.v. contrast. Macrocystic adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head. Credit: public domain

Golf as Exercise

"Walking the golf course certainly counts as exercise. Even riding in a golf cart is better than doing nothing. But to meet the recommended level for good health, you probably need to increase your activity. The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week to help reduce the risk for heart attack and stroke. This is equal to 30 minutes five days a week. One way to achieve this is with brisk walking (4 mph) for 10 miles per week, which burns a total of approximately 1,000 calories."
"Studies have found that walking 18 holes is about equal to brisk walking in terms of intensity (even though golf walking is stop-and-go). A golfer may walk four miles and burn 800 to 900 calories during an average round with help from swinging clubs. If you ride in a cart, the walking distance drops to about one mile and you burn half the calories. So playing two walking rounds per week is a good way to meet the minimum exercise requirement."
"However, in order to gain the maximum cardiovascular benefit from exercise, you may want to add a day or two of higher-intensity activities, such as running, tennis, or something similar that raises your heart rate. The good news: you do not need more than an hour per day. Research has found there is little additional benefit after that time period."
—William Kormos, MD
Editor in Chief, Harvard Men's Health Watch

Ryo Ishikawa, one of Japan's biggest golf stars, demonstrates his swing on the pro tour in February.

Donald Miralle/Getty Images

Winter's over, it's golf time. Everyone's anxious to get out on the green; watching golf tournaments on television can be packed away for the time being, and the golf bag dusted off. And if you're thinking health and fitness and exercise packed into a day of bracing fresh air and sunshine, what's not to like? On the other hand, if you're equating the game you play with the game that the named professionals play, it just isn't the same thing; not as 'physical'. And while a professional golfer has to be equipped with endurance, flexibility and strength for ultimate links success, the ordinary player doesn't.

Were you aware that a portable gym is part of the entourage of the PGA? That most professional golfers follow a year-round fitness regimen to ensure they keep in shape, and most do it with the help of a personal trainer? That's professional commitment. Walk the course or use a golf cart? Walking can be a challenge if it's a hilly terrain, not so much of it's flat, but as an exercise option is preferential. And of course age comes into the equation as well as how hefty the weight of the golfer is, embarking on that 18-hole adventure.

A number of studies report a positive link between regular golf activities and an extended life expectancy, so you practise the game you love and at the same time gift yourself with an improved lifestyle and presumably a longer life. Good formula. Golfers, it would appear, can appreciate that the studies appear to agree that golfers gain by having a 40 percent lower mortality rate than those who don't play golf. They don't know what they're missing.

Image: Monkey Business Images/ Thinkstock

It isn't golf itself per se that gives golfers that advantage, however; it's the walking, and the added physical act of swinging a golf club. It also helps that golf is a very social game that can be shared with friends, family and business associates. That commitment to regularly playing golf, a game that is so much a passion for so many, has its advantages, burning three to eight calories a minute, which comes out to 264 or 450 calories each game. As for the energetic golfers who prefer to walk the course, they will cover 8 to 13 kilometres walking an 18-hole course.

Which will qualify as a moderate-intensity aerobic activity, taking into account that 8 to 13 kilometers represents 11,245 to 16,667 steps reflected on a step counter. But if you ride a cart, that step count is reduced to 6,280 steps, equating with 5 km over 18 holes. Activity fluctuates between light, moderate and high intensity activities throughout the course of the game, reflecting walking, standing or swinging a golf club.

A caution: too many hours where the same motion is repeated tends to be hard on joints, not to mention the effect of poor swing mechanics, the secondary cause of injury among non-pro golfers.
The elbow, wrist, hand and shoulder of golfers are prone to injury, and so too is the spine which must rotate with speed, power and full motion range, requiring a more than a modicum of strength and flexibility. Other sports, however, have a greater risk of injury than golf.

But there's another statistic of more than passing interest, where in the United States, golf comes with the highest incidence of lightning strikes -- resulting in death -- a penalty too dire to contemplate. In extreme weather situations, it's wise, no doubt about it, to clear the course, and speedily. And in good weather when the sun beams down, slather on sunscreen because golfers have a higher-than-average risk of skin cancer, given their long hours of exposure walking that salubrious course under sunny skies.

Even golfers using a motorized cart can burn about 1,300 calories and walk 2 miles when playing 18 holes.

Halfdark/fstop/Corbis

The Online SuckerPunch

"We created a project just so we could capture when people are seeing these fake ads and being sucked down this rabbit hole. It's been going on for a long time."
"They've [on-line fraudsters] gotten very good at doing these things. They can make almost any email or website look authentic. You've got all these authentic-sounding terms. You've got the names and business names that are real, to trick people into believing this is good and it makes sense."
"The spoof websites are the icing on the cake."
"We conservatively estimate that we only capture five percent of reporting. Fraud is under-reported often because of stigma/shame, embarrassment, etc. and we do not have the capacity to handle all the calls or validate all the online fraud reports we receive."
"What we capture provides a snapshot of what is occurring in Canada."
Jeff Thomson, senior intelligence analyst, RCMP Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

ripandscam.com

"The 2018 [FBI] report shows  how prevalent these crimes are. It also shows that the financial toll is substantial and a victim can be anyone who uses a connected device."
"Awareness is one powerful tool in efforts to combat and prevent these crimes."
Donna Gregory, chief, FBI complaint centre

"In today's complex digital landscape, hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, which means it's becoming more difficult to tell real from fake, phishing from friendly."
Rob Fodor, chief data scientist, vice-president of fraud, Interac

"We're finding that it's increasingly difficult for criminals to steal from Canadians using old methods. They constantly evolve. They're going at it through trickery."
"[The] CRA scam [Canada Revenue Agency, case in point, where a fraudster attempts to extract money from victims, claiming to be a government tax collector]."
"Who would have thought in the past about [scam artists] using the government to try to get money from us?"
Rachel Jolicoeur, Interac

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre is operated jointly in Canada with the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police and the Competition Bureau; 466 reported attempts to defraud with fake car sales ads came to their attention in 2018. Of that number, 168 people became victims of the scam, with a reported loss of close to $860,000. The schemes these fraud artists devise are so increasingly slick and believable, with the use of connections and assurances that look absolutely legitimate, there's little wonder so many people get sucked in.

And as increasingly professional as these come-ons have become, all signs point to even more robust and well-planned, completely believable schemes in the planning stages, to entice and abuse even more peoples' trust, and scam them of their money. The FBI recently released its 2018 annual Internet Crime Report with the finding that complaints at its Internet Crime Complaint Center -- designed to capture calls regarding Internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation -- totalled 351,937 last year.

Those complaints led to a loss of over $2.7 billion for the people so ignominiously gulled by credulous-seeming on-line fraudsters. The FBI made good use of those statistics to re-awaken the public to the extent of the fraud, and to persuade them to increase their vigilance against being taken by a fraud artist. The agency figures that the more people are reminded of the plight being visited on the unwary with a related loss of hard-earned cash, the more dedicated people will become to protecting themselves.

Online fraud has become so complex, according to Interac, out of 1,064 Canadians who took part in a new study, over 96 percent failed to identify online fraud on being confronted by it. Many people who took part in the study believed the most effective way to respond to fraudulent activity would be to swiftly react by shutting down their computer, or turning their Internet browser off. It does work in the immediacy of the situation when the screen is suddenly blocked and a large red notice screams that one's computer has been compromised -- call the number given, immediately.

There is so much fraud and it is on the increase simply because it is worthwhile someone's effort; the returns on the investment, so to speak, means that even if a small number of people fall prey, the amount of money they are cheated out of, makes for a rewarding enterprise from the fraud artists. A total of $97.7 million was reported stolen from Canadians linked to online fraud in 2018; an increase over the $83.3 million lost in 2017, by varying methods geared to profit the crooks.

Romance scams netted $22.5 million in 2018 from over 760 Canadians. This kind of scam with online dating, revolves around a fraud artist meeting another person online, cultivating a relationship, and eventually asking for cash. The figures don't actually reflect in total the numbers involved; in that only about five percent of all fraud is reported to police. Fraud reported to local police departments runs into a dead end.

When money is sent to someone online, ending up in another country, local police departments are stymied, so many victims fail to report the fraud, given personal issues of embarrassment or shame suffered when nothing is gained from reporting the crime, other than teaching the victim to be a little more wary next time around.

Typically, phishing messages will ask you to "update," "validate," or "confirm" your account information. They might even ask you to make a phone call. Watch out for these catch phrases: 

• “E-mail Money Transfer Alert:  Please verify this payment information below…”
• “It has come to our attention that your online banking profile needs to be updated as part of our continuous efforts to protect your account and reduce instances of fraud… “
• “Dear Online Account Holder, Access To Your Account Is Currently Unavailable…”
• “Important Service Announcement: You have 1 unread Security Message!”
• “We regret to inform you that we had to lock your bank account access.  Call this number to restore your bank account.”

Often, the message or website includes official-looking logos and other identifying information taken directly from legitimate websites. Government, financial institutions and online payment services are common targets of brand spoofing.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca

Seeking Solutions to Obesity

"This proves that [the gene] MC4R is an important, if not the most important, controller of weight." "[And the new pathway provides an obvious target for drugs to protect against obesity]."

Sadaf Farooqi, MBChB, PhD, professor of metabolism and medicine, University of Cambridge

"We think regulation of hunger and satiety is the key."
"There is food everywhere. If you are a little bit hungry and someone puts out a big plate of doughnuts at your meeting, who’s going to reach for the doughnuts?”
Cecilia Lindgren, professor of genomic endocrinology and metabolism, University of Oxford

Two studies published April 18 in the journal Cell have shone new light on the role genetics can play in developing obesity—or protecting against it.  CardiovascularBusiness

Those among us who always seem to be able to eat whatever they like and never gain weight are both admired and resented by the infinitely greater number of people who crave food constantly and frequently overdo it, ending up gaining weight that then threatens to impair their health and longevity, New research has revealed that the people who always look so trim have a faulty gene responsible for their unusual metabolism.

That genetic alteration in that relatively small number of people who don't seem to ever gain weight actually mutes their appetite so they are in fact not all that enthusiastic about eating. On the more positive end of the spectrum, not only do they remain physiologically spare but these people who never consume much food or think constantly about their next meal, have a reduced chance of becoming diabetic or struggling with heart disease.

The U.K. Biobank which has data on a half million people aged 40 to 60, formed the basis of the study published in the journal Cell, while a second study also published in the same journal made use of data from the same population to develop a genetic risk score for obesity which can help predict as early as childhood who would be at high risk for obesity.

The findings from both studies, when taken together, confirm that there are biological reasons for the reality that some people struggle with their weight and others have no need to. The biological impacts are recognized to focus on appetite, not on metabolism, where people who gain too much weight or struggle to retain normal weight feel hunger on a frequency scale not reflected by their naturally thin counterparts.

The appetite-dulling mutation, led by Dr. Farooqi and Nick Wareham, an epidemiologist at the University of Cambridge, drew on Dr. Farooqi's research into the gene MC4R which she has studied for the past two decades. Her study of the gene was primarily in an effort to parse why it is that some people are overweight, not the opposite; why some people are not.

Endowed with MC4R mutations people tend toward obesity. As many as 300 mutations are located in this gene; the most common single gene cause of obesity. Six percent of children suffering from severe obesity can trace the cause to this gene mutation.

Satiety -- the feeling of fullness following a meal -- is destroyed by the mutations. When people eat a meal, the gene is automatically switched on to signal people that they have consumed their nutritional needs for that meal. When people consequently feel that 'full' signal they stop eating, and the signal turns off.

Those people carrying a mutation in MC4R preventing the gene from doing its work are absent the signal of satiety. Consequently they always feel the need to eat, and as a result become overweight, with a risk of diabetes and heart disease 50 percent more elevated than those lacking the mutation.

In some people, according to the new study, the MC4R gene is always turned to 'on'; they feel full always. And 6 percent of the population is affected by that mutant gene.

As for the related study, Dr. Amit V. Khera, a cardiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and fellow researchers were looking for a method to predict out of a huge collection of minuscule variations in DNA, who might be destined to struggle with weight gain. As a result, the scientists designed an obesity risk score based on DNA alternations, such that people with the highest score weighed 13 kilograms more on average than those with the lowest scores.

The very obese saw 60 percent scoring high. And since the  U.K. Biobank population data consisted of adults, the scientists made use of other genetic studies where at birth, babies with high scores weighed the same as babies with low scores. But by three-and-a-half, they were heavier and by age eight, they were obese. Late adolescence saw them weighing on average 13 kilograms more than children with low risk scores.

"Those eight years might be magical and give you a unique opportunity to make a difference", observed Dr. Joel Hirschhorn, a geneticist at Boston Children's Hospital.

Business Standard

BioHacking 

"[Aside from "cutting edge" to describe the biohacking currently in vogue in controlled diet plans other] ridiculous words -- energize, vitalize, detox, cleanse [signify] red flags for something that's less than legit."
"Humans can thrive on a huge variety of diets [different, but balanced to meet basic dietary needs and ultimately healthy]."
"[The new biohacking diets  promoted with the Silicon Valley descriptives of] enhancing, disrupting, optimizing and upgrading [sound] sciencey [yet lack the legitimacy of science, promoted  not by nutritional experts but by individuals focused on biased experimentation]."
Dr. Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chair, health law

"People think that dieting causes anorexia, but eating disorders are heavily determined by genetic risk factors."
"[Crash dieting is not] on a continuum [with eating disorders]."
Dr. Blake Woodside, eating disorder program, Toronto General Hospital

"[The diets are] not sustainable, either psychologically or socially [the benefits overblown and risks minimized]."
"There's a lack of randomized trials in humans. And how did the mice [in an experiment] feel while fasting? Nobody asked them!"
"That's the problem with every one of these unsustainable fad diets. It's that people feel like a failure. They're promoted as easy and effective."
"Even if you're not vulnerable [to eating disorders], failure doesn't feel good a all. And it's not just a feeling; it's a self-labelling. I am a failure."
Tanis Fenton, registered dietitian, PhD in epidemiology, Calgary

People are fascinated with diets, forever searching for the perfect, fail-safe diet, that will not be too difficult to follow, challenging in its demands, yet result in quick and easy weight loss. It's like the never-ending search for the fountain of youth, in a sense. An elusive goal, the search for the magic ingredient, the failsafe routine, the satisfaction of seeing excess weight drain away, leaving one with the lean, hard configuration associated with youth and vigour.

Diets like the keto diet and others that the term biohacking encapsulates spread by word of mouth and through social media to capture the interest and imagination of the easily led forever on the lookout for magic to replace careful food selection, that essential cut-off of overindulgence, the sheer discipline it takes to eat well but carefully, not too much, avoiding processed food, and seeking out opportunities to make exercise a part of one's daily routine.

Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey claims he eats one meal daily; fish or meat, vegetables and sometimes as well small portions of berries, chocolate or wine. Oh, and weekend fasting when only water is acceptable, water with lemon and Himalayan salt. How exotic is that!? How abstemious is that? What a stern protocol for a 42 year-old man. Lean and mean and perhaps that's the personality that leads so many users of his platform to detest him.

Well, it seems that Silicon Valley is rife with CEOs of popular social media sites practising their very own versions of nutrition deprivation in the greater interests of disciplining their bodies to remain youthful and energetic. From those advocating avoiding carbohydrates, and opting for repetition in selecting simple foods and avoiding all others. And others who go days on end without eating.

The CEO of Bulletproof the supplements company explains biohacking as "the art and science of becoming superhuman". And to fill that category personally, buy his edible oils for their "brain-boosting, fat-burning, high-energy fuel" properties.

While claiming as biohackers and extreme fasters that science is on their side, there are no scientific studies whose conclusions can be relied upon to support their diet theories. They cite in defence of their suppositions, observational, not experimental or controlled studies. On the other hand, because they refer to their diets as "cutting-edge", there is no obvious need to go beyond preliminary research, and simply avoid claims of settled science.

In Japan the diet focus is primarily on soy and fish, rarely dairy or fruit, while the Mediterranean region relies upon grains and vegetables and lots of olive oil and wine. Fish, fruit and coconut staples express the Polynesian diet. Regional diets common to their areas for untold generations, all of which are viewed as truly well balanced in providing for essential balance in nutritional needs, and therefore healthy diets.

With fad diets one carefully calibrates food intake; alternately exercising intense discipline for prolonged fasts.

There's a thin line between those diets and disordered eating. A keto "cheat sheet" lists 108 foods to be avoided; deli meats among them, along with starchy vegetables and most fruit. A stark resemblance to these dieters' commitments and those with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) has been noted by food scientists. Restricting food, according to the Canadian Mental Health Association allows patients to feel a "false sense of being in control".

Restrictive diets have the facility to lead people toward eating disorders; particularly those with a genetic disposition to such disorders, according to Dr. Woodside. Diets requiring constant monitoring may lead some into full-blown eating disorders. Disorders that affect men and women differently, where men speak of fitness toward an ascetic ideal, while women feed on their fear of obesity and their sensitivity to body image.

The idea behind keto dieting is to restrict intake of carbohydrates. In so doing vital plant-based sugars are eliminated, and eventually a state of ketosis manifests, with the body seeking an energy source, and finding it in stored body fat, using it for fuel, and that's where the weight loss comes in. It's like the onset of Type 1 diabetes where the body no longer produces insulin to transform food into glucose to feed the brain and body, and this shortage causes it to desperately burn stored body fat; ketones, causing weight loss and a sharp decline in bodily function.

Failing to meet minimal nutrition requirements will see fasting leading to headaches and poor concentration. Dr. Fenton points out the links between keto and constipation, kidney stones and reduced capacity to exercise. As for weight loss, in comparison to traditional, non-extreme diets, keto can produce a loss of an additional one kilogram over a one-year period; nothing to write home about.

"Biohacking is just another way for people to sell you on things that have been around for decades. There are already plenty of people looking into herpes vaccines and CRISPR technology. They’re called ‘medical scientists’ and they have massive labs and enormous amounts of funding dedicated to finding the best ways to improve human life. There are doctors around the world who know infinitely more about the body than most self-described biohackers, and can tell you exactly why taking a daily cocktail of lithium, modafinil, and 15 supplements is a great way to end your life at 40."

"If you want to improve your health, see a doctor. Exercise more. Eat better. Improve your sleep hygiene."

"Just don’t believe the hype."  Gid M-K  Medium.com

I’ve been up for 60 hours straight and I’ve never done more work and my hands are tingly and EVERYTHING IS AMAZING   Medium.com

Another Consumer Caution: Buyer Beware

"If there was a reason for using the titanium dioxide in food, I would say, 'OK, let's consider it'. But what is the reason? It's purely aesthetic."
Wojciech Chrzanowski, study leader, associate professor, University of Sydney

"In a short period of time, it was already affecting the immune system [in experimental laboratory mice]."
"Titanium dioxide doesn't make you sick, but I believe it does prime your system for disease. If it's safe, we should have proof of that."
"I feel sorry for all the new generations of kids because they will be subject to [titanium dioxide in various food products] from birth."
"The real issue is around regulation. We have no idea how much [of it] we eat."
"Having processed food isn't a big deal, but if we're eating it chronically, I think it is unacceptable."
Laurence Macia, study co-author, associate professor, University of Sydney

"So let's say you see corn starch listed as an ingredient of a food product. If titanium dioxide was used to make the corn starch, they don't need to list it. This will not change with the new food labelling regulations."
"[We would consider making changes to the list of approved additives] should new scientific data become available indicating a possible safety concern for consumers."
Spokesperson, Health Canada

Titanium dioxide, a common food whitener behind the sheen on sweets and the bleach white colour of toothpastes and chewing gums, could open the door to colorectal cancer, colitis and other stomach problems.  Daniel Acker / Bloomberg News

Titanium dioxide is used as a food additive, and considered to function as a colour additive, commonly used as a whitener for a whole host of processed foods. It is considered so inconsequential an ingredient that government health authorities see no need to require manufacturers to list the additive in their published list of ingredients for any product containing the chemical. Yet new research cautions that it may be responsible for colorectal cancer, colitis and allied stomach problems.

The chemical is used in the manufacture of candies, giving them their typical shine; used to bleach toothpastes and chewing gum. In Canada, it is required to be listed as "colour" on the ingredients label, not identified as the chemical titanium dioxide. Professor Chrzanowski and his research team consider such labelling policies concerning, particularly given his team's study identifying the chemical as a possible carcinogen.

 His research team used groups of mice given a regular diet and water with titanium dioxide added for a period of four weeks. Two groups of mice consumed two and ten mg per kg of body weight (rough estimates of how much humans ingest per day) respectively, while a third group was given 50 mg, considered to be a toxic level. In all groups titanium dioxide resulted in the creation of a biofilm shield protecting itself once it entered the large intestine.

The appearance of the biofilm caused a chemical imbalance in the gut linked to colorectal cancer, swelling in the intestines and allied bowel disorders. And while the research stopped short of proving the additive to be dangerous, the  results demonstrated it has a deleterious effect on human bodies. In the United States an earlier 2015 study identified some products with the most titanium dioxide; Mentos Freshmint Gum, Kool-Aid Blue Raspberry, M&Ms Chocolate Candy and Betty Crocker Whipped Cream Frosting.

The American report stressed many of the tested products failed to include the whitener as an ingredient on the product label. M&Ms has promised it would eliminate fake food colours like titanium dioxide from its products by the year 2021. Manufacturers in Canada will be required to list specific food colouring agents like titanium dioxide by December 2021, yet consumers might end up continuing to buy products where they remain unlisted as an ingredient, according to Health Canada.




That children are consuming these products is a matter of concern to the scientists studying food additives, since they represent the most vulnerable demographic in their exposure to titanium dioxide. Queen's University produced research that indicated when pregnant mice consumed a conservative level of titanium dioxide nanoparticles, their babies were born with deformities. Tests conducted on animals may not reflect human effects, however.

It does appear obvious that children whose immune systems are unable to cope with the same amount of exposure to titanium dioxide as adults, should have the benefit of more intensive studies to prove or disprove the harmful effects of this chemical's ubiquity in so many food products. France appears to be taking the initiative, banning titanium dioxide in 2020 in view of no claims to guaranteeing its safety and some studies linking it to obesity and diabetes.

Most food, at it happens, contain many types of additives. Professor Macia pointed out that additives are present everywhere, not just in food, and may be invading the environment contaminating wildlife as well. Most titanium dioxide is actually meant for use as a paint pigment. The chemical finds its way into cosmetics, toothpastes, pharmaceuticals, paper and food. Little wonder it is viewed as ubiquitously invasive.

And just to cap things off, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified titanium dioxide as a Group2B carcinogen. This places titanium dioxide clearly in a grouping declaring that it is "possibly carcinogenic to humans".

PART 73 -- LISTING OF COLOR ADDITIVES EXEMPT FROM CERTIFICATION

Subpart A--Foods

Sec. 73.575 Titanium dioxide.

(a) Identity. (1) The color additive titanium dioxide is synthetically prepared TiO2, free from admixture with other substances. (2) Color additive mixtures for food use made with titanium dioxide may contain only those diluents that are suitable and that are listed in this subpart as safe in color additive mixtures for coloring foods, and the following: Silicon dioxide, SiO2 and/or aluminum oxide, Al2 O3, as dispersing aids--not more than 2 percent total. (b) Specifications. Titanium dioxide shall conform to the following specifications: Lead (as Pb), not more than 10 parts per million. Arsenic (as As), not more than 1 part per million. Antimony (as Sb), not more than 2 parts per million. Mercury (as Hg), not more than 1 part per million. Loss on ignition at 800 deg. C. (after drying for 3 hours at 105 deg. C.), not more than 0.5 percent. Water soluble substances, not more than 0.3 percent. Acid soluble substances, not more than 0.5 percent. TiO2, not less than 99.0 percent after drying for 3 hours at 105 deg. C. Lead, arsenic, and antimony shall be determined in the solution obtained by boiling 10 grams of the titanium dioxide for 15 minutes in 50 milliliters of 0.5N hydrochloric acid. (c) Uses and restrictions. The color additive titanium dioxide may be safely used for coloring foods generally, subject to the following restrictions: (1) The quantity of titanium dioxide does not exceed 1 percent by weight of the food. (2) It may not be used to color foods for which standards of identity have been promulgated under section 401 of the act unless added color is authorized by such standards. (d) Labeling. The label of the color additive and any mixtures intended solely or in part for coloring purposes prepared therefrom shall conform to the requirements of 70.25 of this chapter. (e) Exemption from certification. Certification of this color additive is not necessary for the protection of the public health and therefore batches thereof are exempt from the certification requirements of section 721(c) of the act.

TITLE 21--FOOD AND DRUGS

CHAPTER I--FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

SUBCHAPTER A--GENERAL

Reading The Climate In Tree Rings

"More extreme positions create more extreme climate events, especially heat waves and storms [in Europe]."
"[And the tree rings show] big fires happen in the Balkans when the jet is in its southerly position."
"The recent rise in variance is unprecedented in 300 years."
"Volcanic eruptions are the best proxy of geoengineering."
"We see a trend, atmospherically speaking, that the tropical region is moving further north in the Northern Hemisphere."
"Wide tree rings represent wet years and narrower rings indicate dry years. The research shows from 1203 to 2003, the northern part of the tropics shifted up to 4 degrees."
"We can determine how the edge of the tropics has moved over the last 800 years."
Dr. Valerie Trouer, dendrochronologist, University of Arizona

"The instrumental period provides a snapshot [of past climate]. But the tree rings are a panorama."
"We keep breaking records year after year. It's a little worrisome to see the most extreme years right near the present."
David Meko, researcher, Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona

University of Arizona tree-ring scientist Valerie Trouet taking a pencil-thin core from an old Bosnian pine growing on Mount Olympus in Greece. Greg King Copyright 2010 

The North Atlantic Jet Stream known to drive weather extremes over Europe, presented a steady course for the past two hundred years, then abruptly became less predictable and scientists relied on specialized instrumentation-derived data to forecast for comparison purposes of the jet stream's movements. A technological aid scientists find useful, but dating only to the 19th Century when such instruments and scientific note-taking commenced.

For data reflecting a much earlier era scientists turned instead to parsing tree rings as a more reliable method of discovering complete historical snapshots of climate variations. Trees form new rings as they age, the rings forming outward from the core, with each year forming a new circle of dead wood around the trunk of trees. Every ring reflects a particular year's growth information relating to precipitation, temperature and other climate data to be studied.

A research team out of the University of Arizona, led by dendrochronologist Valerie Trouer, sampled 400 trees located from the Balkans and 200 in Scotland. Between these two regions is where the jet stream flows, and trees can reveal the temperature range in their rings, along with the frequency of fires that take place over time, to reveal an expansive chronological accounting of jet stream behaviour.

A more variable jet stream presenting in recent decades leaves the impression that the shift and its fallout represents human effects on climate, according to Dr. Trouet. As organic recording devices, ancient trees contain information about past climate, civilization, ecosystems and as bizarre as it seems, galactic events.

But there is rationality in that last noted element of research and it was an astronomer, A.E. Douglass, who in the 1930s founded the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research. Dr. Douglass anticipated that tree rings might reveal the connection between sunspots and climate. The first such laboratory to be dedicated to the research of tree rings, it has now been joined by roughly a dozen laboratories established globally which gather data from four thousand sites established on all continents, with the exception of Antarctica.

The International Tree-Ring Data Bank operates a library accessible to all scientists. Tree ring research has three categories; dendroclimatology which is the analysis of tree rings to draw out past climate data; dendroarchaeology which represents the study of tree rings to determine  how past climate affected human societies; and dendroecology, reconstructing past forest ecosystems.

A large tree section from the tree ring lab.

Tree rings reveal whenever huge environmental changes occur and has been recognized in the past six or seven decades that climate change to the degree now seen has few counterpart events in the distant past, according to researchers. Oxygen isotope analysis can draw data on the source of the water a tree absorbed centuries earlier, and can determine as well whether that water was derived from a storm or a hurricane.

Some scientists have advanced a proposal of scattering aluminum sulfate into the atmosphere to block the sun's warming rays and to cool the planet, as a possible solution to climate change. Rings analyzed from trees in five locations worldwide show that following a volcanic eruption in 1568, global climate cooled for two years as a result of the volcanic particulate matter circulating in the atmosphere, blocking out the sun.

During six decades, from1568 until 1634 subtropical expansion led desert climates to make their way north and it has been speculated that, as a result of expanding zones of hot and dry weather, the Ottoman Empire began its decline, the Ming dynasty collapsed -- interpretation offering the view that climactic events related at least partially to the the historical record of civilizational change.

Because stars emit radiation reacting in the atmosphere with nitrogen to change the levels of carbon 14, taken up by living things, it becomes a tracer for cosmic ray levels seen in past spikes in the cosmic rays attracting interest from scientists in the acknowledgement that communication satellites and other technology can be disrupted and even entirely destroyed.

Kiyomi Morino, a research associate at the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, during a field sampling on Mount Bigelow, in the Santa Catalina Mountains. CreditAdriana Zehbrauskas for The New York Times