Coffee Consumption and Cardiovascular Health Body Regulation

"People drink coffee for all sorts of reasons -- as a pick-me-up when they're feeling tired, because it tastes good or simply because it's part of their daily routine."

"But what we don't recognize is that people subconsciously self-regulate safe levels of caffeine based on how high their blood pressure is, and this is likely a result of a protective genetic mechanism."

"What this means is that someone who drinks a lot of coffee is likely more genetically tolerant of caffeine compared to someone who drinks very little."

"Conversely, a non-coffee drinker, or someone who drinks decaffeinated coffee is more likely prone to the adverse effects of caffeine and more susceptible to high blood pressure."

Elina Hypponen, director, Australian Centre for Precision Health, University of South Australia

 

Recent research concludes variously that coffee as a stimulant is useful for decreasing obsessive compulsive behaviour of germaphobes all the way up to increasing the rate at which the body burns fat when consumed pre-workout. It can hardly be surprising that one of the most popular reached-for  beverages globally has intrigued researchers to study its properties and effects on people, and there are many effects of various kinds on many different people.

"Listen to your body, it's more in tune with your health than you may think", advises Dr.Hypponen, lead researcher of a recent study published in the Academic Journal of Clinical Nutrition. The study of almost 400,000 people revealed causal genetic evidence pointing to  n individual's cardiovascular health playing a role in that person's thirst for coffee, known for its caffeine-concentrated effects to start off the day.

Researchers involved in the study found that people with high blood pressure, angina and arrhythmia tend to drink less coffee, or to avoid it altogether. This is not a deliberate thought-out decision, but one that appears sub-conscious as though the body makes a decision in its best interests. The coffee-consumption habits of 390,435 individuals from the UK Biobank -- a large-scale health database containing in-depth genetic and medical data of a half million people -- compared this to baseline levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate.

The Mendelian randomization method used by the researchers established causation; it is an epidemiological technique using genetic variants in observational data to determine the effect of a modifiable exposure like coffee consumption. Some six million Canadians -- representing 19 percent of the population - suffer from high blood pressure with just 17 percent of people nationwide seemingly aware of their condition. 

High blood pressure represents the leading risk for death in the country. Research also bears out that at some time in their lives an estimated 90 percent of the Canadian population will develop high blood pressure or hypertension, typical of most populations in North America. Of those being treated for the condition, only two-thirds are known to exercise adequate control. The published study indicates that coffee assumes a relatively reliable role in the indication of cardiovascular health.

Methods: We used information from up to 390,435 European ancestry participants in the UK Biobank, aged 39-73 y. Habitual coffee consumption was self-reported, and systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and heart rate were measured at baseline. Cardiovascular symptoms at baseline were based on hospital diagnoses, primary care records, and/or self-report. Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to examine genetic evidence for a causal association between SBP, DBP, and heart rate with habitual coffee consumption.

Results: Participants with essential hypertension, angina, or heart arrhythmia were all more likely to drink less caffeinated coffee and to be non-habitual or decaffeinated coffee drinkers compared with those who did not report related symptoms (P ≤ 3.5 × 10-8 for all comparisons). Higher SBP and DBP were associated with lower caffeinated coffee consumption at baseline, with consistent genetic evidence to support a causal explanation across all methods [MR-Egger regression (MREggr) β: -0.21 cups/d (95% CI: -0.34, -0.07) per 10 mm Hg higher SBP and -0.33 (-0.61, -0.07) per 10 mm Hg higher DBP)]. In genetic analyses, higher resting heart rate was associated with a greater odds of being a decaffeinated coffee drinker (MREggr OR: 1.71; 95% CI: 1.31, 2.21) per 10 beats/min).

Conclusions: We provide causal genetic evidence for cardiovascular system-driven influences on habitual coffee intakes, suggesting that people tend to naturally regulate their coffee consumption based on blood pressure levels and heart rate. These findings suggest that observational studies of habitual coffee intakes are prone to influences by reverse causation, and caution is required when inferred health benefits result from comparisons with coffee abstainers or decaffeinated coffee drinkers.

All-Nighters' Consequences

Alcohol can cause dehydration  (Getty Images)

"Alcohol is the most commonly used drug in the world, but we still don't really understand all the effects it has. Relative to other drugs, the dose we tend to consume is simply enormous."

"The brain is much like the skin. A baby's skin is soft ... but as it ages it becomes tougher, then, as you get older, it becomes wrinkly and less elastic and slower to heal. It's the same with the brain, which becomes less efficient with age, with less reliable connections and slower performance. Not surprisingly alcohol will only serve to make that performance even worse."

"Sleep issues are commonplace among the middle-aged. We tend to drink socially at the end of the day and ... alcohol disrupts it still further. Inevitably, it's going to have an impact the following day."

"In middle age, there are often other issues in play, such as stress at work, with all the pressures and responsibilities that brings, and they can lead to irregular eating and poor sleep. Add alcohol to that mix, and it's easy to see how people in midline can begin to really suffer the day after drinking."

"It's thought that the headache component of a hangover is actually migrainous, and it's often the case that those that do suffer with severe headaches or migraines can also be incredibly sensitive to alcohol, to the point where even a sniff of it can induce one." 

Dr.John Janssen, neurologist, Netherlands

"If we expect to feel terrible, we may spend the day on the sofa, feeling sorry for ourselves."

"During hangover, we produce a toxic substance -- acetaldehyde -- created when our body is metabolizing alcohol. Not only is this responsible for the vomiting, nausea and heart-racing during your hangover, it can also interact with neurotransmitters in the brain pathway involved in mood and cognition."

"So if age influences metabolism of alcohol, then we might expect poorer cognition in older drinkers during hangovers."

Sally Adams, assistant professor, health psychology, University of Bath

That splitting headache after a heavy night may ease with age, research suggests. (Posed by a model, Getty Images)

The severity of hangovers along with their frequency, a new study from the Netherlands finds, declines with age. Research shows that people between ages 18 to 25 experience on average, 2.2 hangovers monthly, whereas those in the 56-to-65 age bracket have only 0.3 hangovers in comparison, and by the time they reach age 66 that frequency falls to 0.1 per month. How to avoid a hangover with its nausea, irritability, dehydration, headaches and vomiting? Well, the obvious solution is to abstain from alcohol, but for most people that's not an option in a world where socializing and alcohol go together.

But then, there's this to consider; it just isn't the same experience for everyone. The effects of alcohol consumption and consequent hangovers can vary widely, with some drinkers able to sleep it off, even as the less fortunate will suffer the full round of symptoms. Dr.Adams, a specialist in the psycho-pharmacology of alcohol, is a strong believer in expectations ushering people toward an experience. As far as she is concerned, the single most important factor in determining how a person will feel following a night of drinking in terms of mood and cognition is attributable to the amount of alcohol consumed.

In middle age, people are far different physically and metabolically than they were in their younger years when it was the thing to drink-till-dawn at age twenty. The middle-aged are likelier to have gained a higher percentage of body fat and since fat cannot absorb alcohol, tolerance to it decreases accordingly. The middle aged also have less body liquid, increasing the opportunity of dehydration to develop, meaning the alcohol will remain longer in the body's system.

 

Extra.ie

 

Memory, attention levels and co-ordination can be affected when heavy drinking has led to hangovers. "Hangxiety" is an unshakable sense of gloominess that overwhelms the individual in worries over everything happening in one's life assuming a much larger dimension. Some people may also be more predisposed to developing hangovers after a night of alcohol imbibing than others. Preferential drink choice can also impact the outcome. The advice is to avoid brown spirits, wine and anything mixed with energy drinks; to select vodka or gin with a low-sugar mixer like soda water and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

A workable remedy is to drink at least two litres of water over the course of the day, and to ingest slow-release carbohydrates like eggs on whole-grain toast, pasta, rice or sweet potatoes for the required glucose release.

"A balanced meal containing all key food groups prior to drinking is essential to slow the release of alcohol into the bloodstream. It also helps to protect your stomach lining."

"Clear spirits also contain lower levels of congeners, which can increase the intensity of any hangover."

Lily Souter, nutritionist

A new study has found that hangovers get less – yes, less – severe as we get older.

The Miracle Cave, South Africa

"What we have here in the cave are milestones of these very dramatic events in human evolution."

"I can't think of any other site I know of, certainly not in sub-Saharan Africa, that has a complete sequence of two million years of human occupation."

"We can't say whether these people were actually making the fire, or whether they were just using fire. But it's still a very momentous moment in human evolution and development."

"Because once you have fire, it opens a whole set of new things that you can do -- like protect and warm yourself, create light and cook food."

Liora Kolska Horwitz, researcher, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Natural History Collection

"It's really interesting to understand how our species evolved with time."

"Every evidence and clue that can shed light on very early histories is very fascinating ... it's a great feeling to be part of this."

Ron Shaar, Professor of Geology, Hebrew University Institute of Earth Sciences

"So there are traces of fire, but how is the fire being used? There are stone tools, but what were they being used for?"

"Can we draw out more of the lives of these people at different points in time?"

Michael Chazan, co-director, Wonderwerk Cave project, University of Toronto

Sampling for dating     Wonderwerk Cave Research Project

In Afrikaans, the language of South Africa-dominated Dutch the cave named Wondewerk is translated to English as Miracle Cave. A place of ancient geology where protohumans found refuge in humanity's primordial history. Ancient as in two million years ago when occupation of the cave by humans has been verified by a team of archaeologists in a collaboration between researchers from University of Toronto and Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The immense cave in North Cape Province, South Africa, has attracted countless excavations and exploratory visits from the international community of archaeologists for the past 80 years. The cave is extensive, estimated at 140 metres in length, and as a result of its presence as a geological environmental area of protection where humans could control the menaces that lurked outside the cave from entrance by predators it was a site of some importance over countless eras of human existence.

Sedimentary layers examined by researchers render a picture of how human evolution devolved, explained Liora Kolska Horwitz, one of the co-directors of the Wonderwerk Cave expedition. A project that has continued for over fifteen years of discovery. Evidence of Oldowan tools have been found in the oldest layers of the sedimentary layers in the cave. These are, for the most part, sharp stone flakes and simple tools devised for chopping.

2013 Excavation    Wonderwerk Cave Excavation Project

Early hand axes have been uncovered within newer layers merely a million years old. Burnt bone, burnt stone tools, sediment and ash attest to the use of fire -- all exciting, revelatory discoveries -- yet discoveries that while answering some puzzles of human existence in the long distant past, open up new questions that answers are sought for. 

And while it's clear that the earliest hominids to appear on Earth occupied the Wonderwerk Cave, there is ample evidence of far more recent occupation, where European farmers who travelled to Africa as colonial occupiers of a vast, richly endowed land, made the cave their temporary shelter while in the process of building farm steads in the early 1900s.

How long each succeeding group over the aeons remained, to account for the past two million years of human existence is unclear, but the exploratory revelations thus far revealed stun Earth Sciences professor Ron Shaar, lead author of the study. Dr. Horwitz theorizes that the cave may also have acquired an additional status beyond providing safety and shelter; a reputation as a place of spirituality.

That value, held by local communities might have imbued the cave with spiritual dimensions "from the beginning of time". Its vast size alone identified it as a landmark people invested with great meaning, and kept returning to. In the geography it occupies it is a geological anomaly. There are few rock shelters or caves in its location, making it unique in a myriad of ways.

Hunters would also recognize the site as a place to search the landscape, looking out as it does onto a plateau. Continued collaboration between archaeologists, geologists and allied scientists in an effort to determine precisely how hominids interacted with the Wonderwerk Cave will provide ample opportunities for ongoing investigations by the research community at large.

 

Entrance to Wonderwerk Cave   Wonderwerk Cave Excavation Project

Revealing New Facets of COVID Danger

"[The people whose deaths are now being investigated had symptoms] but not severe symptoms to the point they would anticipate going to the hospital."

"People are appearing to die outside of hospital, which we hadn't seen earlier."

"It was important for people to have the perspective that it can be very serious and fatal." 

"It is really sad for the people who were ill with this and for the people they lived with. For us as Ontarians, it is such a tough thing."

"It is another example of the seriousness and sadness that comes along with this terrible virus."

"These were people that weren’t necessarily appearing, based upon their symptoms, to be needing to go to hospital or an ambulance to be called. So it’s not that people were ignoring symptoms from what I’ve read ... these were people who did have stable conditions and then deteriorated very quickly."

"We are still evaluating and trying to understand all of the circumstances,” the coroner added. “But certainly, it’s notable in the fact that this is a younger population ... who are suffering serious consequences in the form of death in a quicker period of time than we saw in the past."

Dr.Dirk Huyer, chief coroner, head, Ontario outbreak response team

In an alarming new trend, people are dying at home from COVID-19 as the third wave of the pandemic increasingly fills hospitals with patients who are younger and sicker.  The Toronto Star

 

A thirteen-year-old girl living in Brampton just outside Toronto died in her home on April 22, hours after her father found her in an unresponsive condition in her bed. He rushed her to hospital, too late. Emily Viegas was one of the youngest Canadians to die of COVID-19. Her father, a worker in a factory, had been vaccinated. Her mother, with serious symptoms of COVID, is in hospital. The young girl developed symptoms similar to her mother's, but her father decided to look after her at home, fearful that she would be moved to a distant hospital. Her illness proceeded so rapidly there was no opportunity to fully comprehend that death was imminent. But it was.

Most hospitals in Toronto are so packed with severely ill COVID patients, they have been moving patients to other hospitals in the province for relief, and in anticipation that whenever they open up a bed, new patients will soon arrive to take up residence in those beds. Seemingly suddenly a new phenomenon has been appearing with COVID-19-infected people; their conditions worsen so swiftly there is no time to react, and they die at home.  It is sudden, and unexpected, a disturbing trend flagged by the province's chief coroner.

According to Dr.Dirk Huyer, deaths at home of COVID-19 patients are occurring in greater numbers, on some days as many as two cases surface. At least 40 deaths of people who appear to have died of COVID-19-related illness in their homes, are being investigated by his office. Most of the people who died, not realizing the severity of their symptoms caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, lived with others in the household. This third wave of the pandemic has turned out to be more complex, troubling and infectious than the previous two.

The deaths have occurred among people under age 70. The central region of the province has produced 25 cases the coroner's office is in the process of investigating; all of them deaths that occurred from the beginning of April forward. Only deaths where "non-natural or sudden" describes them, are investigated by the coroner's office. Those deaths under investigation are of people ranging between ages 30 and 80, the majority of whom were younger. Of 25 people who died in the province's central region, sixteen were under age 60.

During this third wave of the pandemic the province is seeing people younger and sicker than what occurred in the earlier waves, reflecting in part that most long-term care and retirement home residents are now vaccinated, as are large segments of elderly people living within communities. It is not yet known whether those who died in their homes from sudden worsening conditions had been infected with variants of concern, but a review is under way.

 

Emily Victoria Viega, a 13-year-old girl from Brampton, died due to COVID-19. (Maria Viegas/Facebook.)

Death On A Dare?

"He didn't respond to any of the stimuli that we gave him."

"He had some clonus, which is just elevated reflexes. It's a sign that basically the nervous system wasn't working very well."

"We were more aggressive than had been reported before in terms of bringing his sodium back down to a safer range."

Dr.David J. Carlberg, emergency room doctor, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C.

 

The Journal of Emergency Medicine reported in 2013 one of the really unthinkingly stupid actions that can be taken when young men whose brains evidently have not yet fully developed do things that may threaten they will never develop, such as courting death and almost succeeding. There's no word in the report whether the 19-year-old from Virginia feels his experience was worth it, to have it reported as one of the zaniest potentially self-harming incidents ever recorded in the journal. It might make for a great conversational gambit but for the fact that with a mature mind, it resembles juvenile delinquency at its best.

19-year-old John Paul Boldrick, in the company of a group of his peers that he might have considered to be friends, accepted a dare and downed a quart of soy sauce, known for its salt content and usually used sparely as a condiment alongside Asian food. He is now acknowledged to be the first known individual to have overdosed on soy sauce, yet suffered no permanent neurological damage. Needless to say, given his free choice of response to a dare, he might not have had too developed a brain to begin with, and any loss, however minimal due to excessive salt intake might have rendered him intellectually sub-par with a vengeance.

Soon after drinking the stuff, twitching and seizures erupted, prompting his friends to rush the fellow with impaired judgement to hospital. Once in the emergency room he had slipped into a coma, and was foaming at the mouth. The result of having ingested around 56,000 milligrams of sodium contained in the amount of soy sauce he poured into his throat, down his gullet into his stomach. Hypernatremia resulted from the surge of salt that assaulted his bloodstream. 

Hypernatremia is observed generally in mentally ill people who happen to relish an absolute excess of salt intake. The condition erupts when too much water is lost, or the body takes in too much sodium for regulation by normal body action to balance such a situation. Surrounding tissues are then called upon by the body to surrender their water, in an effort to dilute the deluge of salt. The major symptoms of hypernatremia are extreme thirst to balance excessive salt; acute fatigue, muscle spasms and confusion. 

Soy sauce can be deadly at high levels.  Shutterstock

 

In the most severe of such cases the brain can be leached of its water, which causes it to shrink, to bleed or for seizures to erupt. Left untreated, coma and death are in the offing. In the case of this young patient admitted to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, attending medical staff swiftly administered a cocktail of water and dextrose through a nasal tube, pumping six litres into his system in the space of 30 minutes, enabling his sodium levels to return to normal in the next five hours.

The fortunate young man with the faulty sense of survival in the interests of 'proving himself', emerged from his coma without further intervention, once three more days had passed. Authors of the study -- the emergency medical staff at the hospital -- wrote of this rare encounter, outstanding for the amount of salt in his system. Some residual effects were identified as a result of the seizures suffered, but with the passage of a month, all overdose signs disappeared.

Re-Opening Precipitately? Look at India

"I think the problem is that what we are seeing is that this idea of herd immunity is messy."

"Whether we're talking about a single mutant or double mutant or triple mutant, we're seeing quite a few different mutations." 

"The real question for us is figuring out, as quickly as possible, with India, what does this variant mean? Is there a correlation between B.1.617 and the crisis that they're in right now [does it have enhanced properties?} For Canadians, that's the information we need to know."

What does it tell us from our own personal standpoint? It tells us we are still dealing with the same virus.We've got to be vigilant with that stuff if we don't want to see this new variant, or any other variant, transmitting widely through our community. Because once it hits a tipping point, we can't stop it in its tracks."

Jason Kindrachuk, virologist, University of Manitoba

"[Following the first wave in India the numbers started nose-diving early in the New Year], and everybody started celebrating, declaring success, that 'we're out of the woods'."

"And we thought a good proportion of Indians would have gotten naturally infected last year and would have antibodies, and then vaccination started."

"And then the Indian government, in its wisdom, opened up in a hurry. No social distancing [as millions attended religious festivals and super-spreader political rallies], masking went down, public health measures were relaxed and testing went down."

"And then we started to see the number climb again. You've seen the graph, right? It looks like a rocket going up. I've never seen anything like it."

Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global health, McGill University

Paramedics wearing protective equipment wheel a patient into the emergency department at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

 

A directive was issued to hospitals in Ontario in April that non-urgent care in the operating room must cease. Surgeons, nurses and anesthetists should be prepared to redeploy to the COVID wards and the ICU. Triage meetings have become regular events to discuss which of the cases presenting must be sent to the operating room and which patient appears on the brink of permanent or irreparable harm, and that person must then wait -- 'declined'. This is called the reality response to a desperate situation.

India's catastrophic COVID-19 wave has brought with it a dire situation with doctors sending out SOS messages pleading for oxygen. It is where opportunistic variants are now beginning to spread widely in Canada, causing great alarm, but in comparison to the situation in India, a mere ripple as opposed to that nation's riptide of illness. On a number of recent consecutive days India has posted unbelievably huge single daily COVID caseloads such as 332,730 cases and 2,263 deaths. Daily. Mind-boggling.

New Delhi, the nation's capital, is riddled through with COVID cases and they continue to rise. "If we open up everything, give up on public health and not vaccinate rapidly the new variants can be devastating", warned Dr. Madhukar Pai of McGill University. It is as yet unknown whether India's growing caseload owes to new infections or how much reinfection is involved. Studies out of Manaus in Brazil suggest that up to half the population in some of India's largest cities had been infected previously in the first wave, resulting in a fairly high immunity in the population.

Only now has Canada officially closed the air corridor for a month for direct-passenger flights from India and Pakistan to enter Canada. Too late, unfortunately, to prevent a new 'double mutant' from arriving. The B.1.617 variant has already been identified in British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta. "Variants of concern" now account for over half of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Canada, Friday's new modelling confirm.

In the Greater Toronto Area patient transfers are increasing, COVID patients being sent to other, less-crowded hospitals in Ontario to relieve some Toronto hospitals briefly, before even more patients arrive, as anticipated. Pregnant women are now being over-represented in Toronto hospitals with COVID, populating ICUs, requiring emergency C-sections. A new phenomenon has arisen where an average of two people a day die at home, becoming critically ill so suddenly there is no opportunity for them to arrive at a hospital.

 

Despite the Covid-19 surge, crowds have been allowed to gather for Kumbh Mela in Haridwar, India. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters

 

Word of a "triple mutant" virus detected now in India has turned the heads of virologists and infectious disease specialists. There is speculation, but no hard data available, about how these variants behave together, or on the background of other mutations. The variants all carry an alphanumeric soup of mutations, some more threatening than others. B.1.617 is imbued with several mutations shared by other variants shown to have a measure of antigenic escape; in other words the capacity of a virus to evade its host's immune system.

The situation is so grave it is imperative that vaccinations be sped up by all necessary means. Complicated by the reality that vaccines are in short supply, thanks to the incompetence of the federal government that chose early on to do business with China, until that fell through and vaccines had to be sourced elsewhere, late in the game, through more infinitely reliable venues. Masking, distancing and all other infection prevention control measures continue to be in mind of everyone in an effort to control as much as possible, the trajectory of the coronavirus surge.

 

A patient with breathing problems is seen inside a car while waiting to enter a COVID-19 hospital for treatment   Reuters

 

Deaths are known to be under-reported in India, with infections likelier to reflect three million per day, than the official tallies. Space to cremate people is no longer so readily accommodated; there are simply too many to deal with. The vaccination programs are not proceeding as speedily as they should. Vaccine production in India has run into difficulties with the emergence of a scarcity of supplies for which they have turned to the U.S. to expedite the materials needed, held there in greater abundance. India is no longer releasing vaccines outside their interior emergency, and the U.S. is reluctant to release materials they may themselves need. A deadly spiral.

Entire families are becoming ill, the young being infected along with all others in India, and similar reports are beginning to come out of Ontario, with entire families arriving at hospitals with COVID. People in their 30s or 20s in intensive care. Natural acquired immunity may not be adequate in protecting from the new variants, Dr. Pai worries. "But we really need to see this as a global problem. If you have fires raging in India, or Brazil, or somewhere else next month, we will never get out of these pandemic cycles."

A mass cremation of victims who died due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), is seen at a crematorium ground in New Delhi   Reuters

Communication Between Pets and Owners By Telepathy

"If I had someone who wanted me to listen to their pet psychic [then] I would have pooh-poohed it. In the last five to seven years, I’m not really skeptical any more."

"I had a cat who was having a breathing problem and the owner spoke to an animal communicator, who said the cat needed acupuncture."

"Animals are very empathetic and can pick up on their owners’ feelings,:

"When I first started vet school everyone thought acupuncture was voodoo medicine; now it’s very accepted by mainstream veterinarians. I think in the future we might find there is something to psychic medication."

Dr Aleda Cheng, New Jersey-based veterinarian

 

"People want company, but they don't necessarily want to raise a child."

"The cost of owning a pet is a lot less than raising a child."

Ariel Hu, telepathic communicator, course teacher on talking to animals

 

Pet psychics are growing in number and popularity. They are people who undergo training sessions to prepare them to become more sensitive to the fact that people have telepathic capabilities, they just have to be guided toward understanding the power they have and how to use them. A powerful incentive is speaking to the dead, the dearly departed, to communicate with them and to find solace and peace in the knowledge that this can be done, once the subconscious powers of telepathy have been unleashed. 

 

Animal pets now have their very own psychic consultants, those who specialize as intermediaries acting on behalf of the pet owner, the human companion of a dog or a cat or any other pet; all have the capacity to communicate with the assistance of a skilled intermediary. Their owners find comfort in the assurance that with the help of these pet communicators, a long-mourned dead cat or dog can be reached and asked questions about their well-being, for example, and whether when they return to life they would want to meet again.

 

Taiwan has become the centralized location of more pet telepathic professionals than anywhere else on the planet. Some attribute this to Daoism and Buddhism with the cardinal belief in reincarnation and the life of spirits. Many others may consider that this is a way to deal with grief when a beloved animal dies, leaving the pet owner bereft of its constant companionship. According to experts a plausible explanation lies in the fact that the belief in telepathy is an urban, middle-class phenomenon fed by a sense of isolation.

During this time of a global pandemic and the need to exercise social distancing, masking, avoiding physical interaction with others and any exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, people are more anxious, unsettled and unhappy than ever before. With a companion, depression can be set aside, and a growing number of Taiwanese have adopted pets for company and the sharing of a physical space. 

In Taiwan, the growing body of in-demand pet telepathy experts -- or as they prefer to call themselves, animal communicators -- this cottage industry has grown in demand in lock-step with the expanding number of new pet-owners in the island state. The Taiwan Animal Communication Center sees new classes of students graduating every few months. They maintain a roster of over 80 certified professionals whose expertise can be hired out.

Other animal communicators have been trained at home by other teachers, or even overseas, including in the United States and Britain where the movement toward pet telepathy first emerged. Nowhere, however, has the movement attained the popularity it has in Taiwan; to the extent that it can take months to reserve an appointment with the most in-demand pet communicators. "There are more communicators per capita in Taiwan than anywhere else I've seen", observed Lauren McCall, a British-American animal communicator who operates student workshops in Taiwan.

 

In the past ten years there has been a steady rise in pet ownership with registered dogs and cat ownerships peaking at 2.5 million in 2017, close to double the numbers in 2005. Taiwan reported 2.3 million dogs and cats in 2019, rates out-numbering those of children under age 15 in five counties. Dogs can be seen carted about in strollers in Taipei. Businesses offering massages or swim classes and yoga for dogs have no difficulty finding clients.

Funerals can be arranged for departed animals with monks officiating, chanting last rites complete with ceremonial joss paper burning to enable their spirits to live well in the afterlife. Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen has two cats and three dogs, all of which were featured in her pre-election campaign last year, and remain part of public relations, helping raise her popularity level. A pet communicator was also one of the president's campaign managers.

Taiwanese seem to have lost their enthusiasm for having children, replacing them instead with adopting animal pets, citing rising living expenses, a lag in wages and living in densely populated cities. All of which gave Taiwan a shrinking population for the first time on record, in 2020. As more animals enter households, their owners turn to communicators where services such as finding lost pets or divining the relationship between owner and pet in a past life, are all available.

And it is not only dogs and cats  that are communicated with on behalf of their owners, but also pet hedgehogs, birds, turtles, dolphins and ... plants.

"The IAABC is an evidence-based organization promoting best practices in animal behavior and training. While we understand that belief-based practices inspire passion and conviction in some people, there is no scientifically verified evidence that these methods are based on anything more than faith."

"[Pet psychics may seem harmless, but] belief-based practices can lead clients and practitioners to see change and improvement where there is none, potentially causing harm to the animal."

Marjie Alonso, executive director of the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants

Achieved: The Holy Grail of Malaria Vaccine

"There are about 13 million children born each year in various areas of Africa that could really benefit from the malaria vaccine."

"There are three doses per schedule and a booster dose so 200 million [the number the pharmaceutical manufacturer in India has agreed to produce yearly] is a very good number."

"That's a real technical challenge. The vast majority of vaccines haven't worked because it's very difficult." 

"[However the trial results meant the vaccine was] very deployable [and] has the potential to have a major public health impact."

Adrian Hill, director, Jenner Institute Oxford University

 

"[The results were] very exciting [and showed] unprecedented efficacy levels".

"We look forward to the upcoming 'phase III' trial to demonstrate large-scale safety and efficacy data for a vaccine that is greatly needed in this region."

Halidou Tinto, professor in parasitology, principal trial investigator, Clinical Research Unit of Nanoro, Burkina Faso

Vaccines against malaria have been rolled out before, such as this one in Ghana   Getty Images

 

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease that plagues the hot and humid areas of the world from Asia to Africa, the cause of sub-Sahara Africa losing approximately 400,000 people annually. Now, preliminary results of a phase two trial undertaken with 450 children in Burkina Faso indicates that the vaccine produced by scientists at Oxford University's Jenner Institute is 77 percent effective against malaria. The vaccine, called R21, is the first of its kind to rate such a high efficacy rate.

 

An agreement with the Serum Institute of India, one of the world's largest and most productive vaccine manufacturers, assures that they are committed to producing 200 million doses annually as soon as the vaccine has gained official approval. When that happens, the researchers anticipate that the vaccine doses will be available widely, and at low cost, to solve one of the world's most vexing environmental health risks through a vector that has always plagued humanity.

 

The existing anti-malaria vaccine,  of promise, the RTS.S vaccine produced by GlaxoSmithKline, its efficacy rate came out to 50 percent in late-stage trials, the barest minimum to declare it a success. While this vaccine has completed phase three clinical trials it has not yet been fully licensed as a result of safety concerns. It is, however, being administered at the present time in Kenya, Malawi and Ghana, representing part of a World Health Organization-led pilot project. 

Having a second vaccine in circulation would represent an immense assist to efforts geared toward eliminating malaria. Other preventive measures which are moderately effective include bed nets, indoor spraying, and preventive drugs, their use hampered by insufficient funding to ensure these methods are widely available where they are badly needed.

Children aged five to 17 months were given the R21 vaccine in three doses a month apart, with a booster dose a year later, in this latest trial. Three phase-three trials with 4,800 subject-participants for the vaccine are on the cusp of initiation in Africa. Challenge trials where volunteers in the U.K. were given the vaccine, then subjected to bites by malaria-carrying mosquitoes have earlier been completed.

Successful Malaria vaccines have been the goal of researchers for the past century, a goal that  has been difficult to achieve. Partially as a result of the disease being seasonal, where 90 percent of deaths happen three to four months following the rainy season, emphasizing the vital importance of inoculating with vaccines at the precise right opportunity.

Seriously Ill COVID Variant Pregnant Women

"There have never been this many pregnant women in ICU in the history of our country or our province. This is unprecedented."

"It is heartbreaking and terrifying. These are young, otherwise healthy women."

"[COVID-19 critical illness is] a new disease for us. It  hit us like a bullet train."

Dr.Mark Walker, professor of obstetrics, University of Ottawa

"Pregnant women who have COVID-19 appear more likely to develop respiratory complications requiring intensive care than women who aren't pregnant."

"Providing ventilator support in pregnancy is more challenging and the risks are greater to both mother and child."

"[SOGC members are reporting] a wave of daily pregnant women coming into Ontario ICUs, many requiring ventilators. These women are getting extremely sick, very quickly."

Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada

 

Dr.Walker is scientific director of BORN (Better Outcomes Registry and Network), based in Ottawa, whose purpose is to improve care for mothers and children through the collection, interpretation and sharing of data relating to maternal and newborn health. Currently the group is involved in gathering information about the COVID-19 situation as it relates to pregnant women, in an effort to better understand it and to be in a position to render aid with their care.

As a high-risk obstetrician and researcher, Dr.Walker speaks of feeling utterly terrified in the face of growing numbers of pregnant women being admitted to intensive-care units across Ontario, as a result of seriously troubling cases of COVID-19. In Toronto, some intensive care units see women representing half, even more, of critically ill COVID-19 patients. And of their numbers, a large percentage have been placed on ventilators, a situation that has become critical in recent weeks.

These are the sickest pregnant women that Dr.Walker -- throughout the course of his career of several decades as an obstetrician -- has ever treated. There is now an urgent call by physicians and national and provincial organizations of obstetricians and gynecologists for pregnant women to be prioritized for vaccines. The situation currently is that unless pregnant women are in other priority groups, there is no move as yet to inoculate them as a demographic in need, against COVID-19.

Pregnancy is listed among at-risk health conditions in Ontario and in that category people are scheduled to receive vaccinations beginning mid-to-late May. While AstraZeneca is available now to people over age 40, that excludes many younger, pregnant women. Women who are pregnant must have a prescription from their physician, under guidance from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization when they do qualify for vaccination.

Unvaccinated, pregnant women with COVID-caused respiratory illness become three times likelier to end up in intensive care, and two times more likely to die, than those women who happen not to be pregnant. Variants, now dominating in Ontario, appear to be associated with greater levels of risk and sickness for women who are pregnant than had occurred with the original variants, points out Dr.Walker.

Growing numbers of women in pregnancy, have become critically ill in the past two weeks, at levels far surpassing the beginning of the pandemic. Rumours of a similar phenomenon had reached the ears of obstetricians and researchers, occurring in the United Kingdom, where the B.1.1.7 variant became the dominant strain. Published data had been unavailable until recently. The medical community in Ontario was taken by surprise at the degree to which the U.K. variant is affecting pregnant women.

"It is not often we run into a situation where we are not sure how to manage", stated Dr.Walker of a situation where experienced specialists are trying -- on the basis of their new and growing familiarity with the situation -- to understand its implications. Women's oxygen-saturation levels are being closely watched because of its impact on the health of both mother and baby. In treatment, some women are being subjected to the technique of proning, widely used during the pandemic where severely ill patients are turned on their stomachs to improve oxygen absorption.

For obvious reasons, the prone position becomes extremely difficult in pregnancy. There are also higher rates of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women infected with COVID-19, a pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure and symptoms damaging to organs, most frequently the liver and kidneys. Emergency C-sections are performed in some cases, in an effort to save the baby. Preterm labour is also associated with severe COVID-19-related illness in pregnant women.

These women, in their pregnancy make every effort to avoid close contact with others. Many of the women who are pregnant, however, already have children who have been attending school or daycare, and thus contact at some level is unavoidable. 

 

The Children Are Not All Right

"Kids are not doing well. This is really taking its toll."

"They spend 24/7 in their bedrooms. They are not getting out of bed. Even when schools open up, they have no motivation."

"They are so far behind, they can't even bring themselves to go to school." 

"These kids are on a downhill trajectory."

Dr.Jane Liddle, pediatrician, Ottawa Community Pediatricians Network

"[Closing schools might have been the right response to the pandemic], but it is having some pretty big implications on the pediatric situation on a daily basis."

"All of us are seeing an increased referral volume from family physicians [for eating disorders] that is out of proportion to what we typically would see."

Dr.Kelley Zwicker, founder, Ottawa Community Pediatricians Network

"We are the doorkeepers. We are the ones who keep children from coming to CHEO [Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario]."

"What CHEO is seeing is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we see in our practices."

"In a situation where everything is taken away, including the routine of school, this makes very much sense that these children who see a complete loss of control concentrate on the one thing they can do [refuse food or eat too much food]."

Dr.Andrzej Rochowski, chief of pediatrics, Queensway Carleton Hospital

Discipline, purpose, opportunities for physical exertion, playtimes, school routines, exposure to other children in their peer group, casual decision-making, have all been extracted from the daily lives of children living under the new life-rules of COVID-inspired restrictions. Parents are pressed to expose their children to opportunities for learning, at a time when the home has become the learning centre, with the closure of public and private schools as part of an effort to maintain distancing to tamp down rising numbers of COVID cases and more infectious transmission with the presence of new variant strains.

Children are now increasingly exhibiting symptoms of mental disturbance in the most troubling of ways, going from puzzlement to reaction and graduating to severe mental health crises. Some children have been left feeling suicidal, suffering from major depression and extreme anxiety. Their world has been overturned and nothing is the same as it always has been. An exponential rise in young patients presenting with clear signs of increasing mental disturbance has alarmed area pediatricians, and what they are experiencing is obviously occurring everywhere that COVID has locked down entire communities.

Medical professionals belonging to the recently-inaugurated Ottawa Community Pediatricians Network are raising the alarm over frightening levels of mental and physical illness being seen among children and teens in reaction to a pandemic stretching into its second year of disrupting daily life. Their concerns are not only for the current situation which appears to be growing in the numbers of children presenting for care, but for the prospect of what lies ahead as the situation continues to grow.

 

Children in a playground outside Hastings Elementary School in Vancouver. Anxiety, depression, behavioural issues and post-traumatic stress could become far more common in children both during the pandemic and in its aftermath, the research review found. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

When the schools are opened, children find support in the presence of others like themselves. When they close, during lockdowns occasioned by the upward swings of coronavirus cases, physicians start seeing growing numbers of patients, as mental health disorders begin to surge. Some of these doctors specialize in caring for patients under the age of six. Doctors are witnessing alarming signs of poor mental health, including anxiety and clinical depression in five-year-olds.

In some of these children body mass index has rapidly increased, partially as a result of the children spending so much more time at home and parked in front of computer screens. Many of these children have completely lost any interest in schools, and have no wish to return when they do re-open for in-person classes. The concern over their academics, over eating disorders which have rapidly increased during the pandemic is shared by family, family physicians and the specialists these ailing children are referred to.

 

A volunteer takes a call at the Crisis Centre B.C office in Vancouver. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

 

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario reports a fifty percent increase in emergency assessments for eating disorders, pandemic-induced, even while community pediatricians see many more cases, not yet admitted to hospital. Some of these children presenting with eating disorders represent a much younger cohort than seen in the past, becoming sicker more quickly than in the past. Food is something youth and children feel they can control, explains Dr.Rochowski, reflecting the dangerous spike in severe eating disorders seen now nation-wide.

 

The group of pediatricians have in mind the need to dispel a prevailing attitude that children have not and will not be severely affected by the fallout of the pandemic. "There has been a false sense of security that kids were going to be fine out of this. Kids are not fine", stressed Dr.Liddle. All of the doctors concerned agree that the detrimental effects of the pandemic will be seen for months and years into the future, for the children so badly affected.

Often, children will present signs of mental illness in ways that are not quite the same as adults. You may observe changes in behaviour, mood, sleep patterns, appetite and/or interactions with others that are having a negative effect on your child’s day to day activities. It is important to seek help.

Is your child experiencing any of these?

• Extreme outbursts or excessive mood swings
• Worrying so much that they are getting stomach aches or headaches
• Persistent nightmares and a lack of sleep that are affecting your child’s day
• Avoiding formerly enjoyable activities, including spending time with friends
• Unusually quiet, sad or reserved, preoccupied
• Change in appetite – eating considerably less, or more.

CMHO Family Health Centre

 

 

Post-COVID, as the World Economy Turns to 'Normal'

"It's very easy after a gruelling year or more to feel really relieved that things are back on track."

"But a lot of the effects that we see historically are often for decades and are not easily addressed."
Vellore Arthi, University of California, Irvine

"Getting back to the pre-COVID standard will take time."

"The aftermath of COVID isn't going to reverse for a lot of countries. Far from it."
Carmen Reinhard, chief economist, World Bank

"Innovation supports higher productivity growth, and new investment raises living standards."

"Key too are strategies to keep and train workers to take advantage of the higher productivity opportunities."

Catherine Mann, chief economist, Citigroup Inc.

"There's genuine uncertainty over how much people's behaviour in terms of consumption patterns changes as a result of this crisis."

"If people go back to eating in restaurants, doing leisure travel, working out in gyms then a lot of those industries will revive."

"But it's also possible that people's tastes just genuinely change, in which case there is going to be transitionally more unemployment and there's no good government fix for that."

Adam Posen, president, Peterson Institute for International Economies

UVD-Robots, which makes cleaning robots for hospitals, has had hundreds of new orders since Covid-19 broke out    UVD Robots

 

Economists taking a long view of the world economic situation looking to a COVID-free future entertain doubts of the kind of universal recovery that will take shape across the globe. A whopping $26-trillion of crisis support linked with the presence of COVID vaccines managed, to the surprise of many, to fuel a quicker recovery than had been anticipated. That, in the face of another reality, that the legacy of education in abeyance, job disappearances, crippling debt levels and greater inequalities hobbling ethnic groups, genders, generations and geographies strikes a discordant note.

The first half of the equation will benefit advanced economies, the second half will burden the poorest nations. Last year, the overall decline in gross domestic product represented the largest descent since the Great Depression. According to the calculations of the International Labour Organization, 255 million workers lost their full-time employment. The global middle class, according to research at the Pew Research Centre, shrank for the first time, since the 1990s.

A scorecard of 31 metrics across 162 nations devised by Oxford Economics Ltd, emphasizes how unevenly the costs will fall with the Philippines, Peru, Colombia and Spain representing economies most vulnerable to long-term struggles. Those countries most likely to emerge with considerably less scarring have been identified as Australia, Japan, Norway, Germany and Switzerland. Economies less affected by the coronavirus this year and beyond will not be affected as deeply.

Greater suffering will be experienced by low-income countries and emerging markets, in contrast to the 2008/9 recession when it was the rich nations that bore the brunt of the global recession. Supported by trillions of dollars in stimulus, projections indicate little residual scarring for the world's largest economy, as a result of the pandemic, with U.S. GDP forecasted to be larger than projected from before the emergence of COVID-19, according to the International Monetary Fund.

 

A worker wears a mask in Sub-Saharan Africa. © Lucian Coman/Shutterstock

 

 

"A decade of global growth disappointments" is on the horizon -- warned the World Bank in its January report -- should corrective action not be taken. Global output, it estimated, was on course to be 5 percent lower by 2025 than its pre-pandemic trend. Countries quick to control the virus warn of the uneven road that lies to the future. As an example, New Zealand's economy contracted in the last three months of 2020, caused by the absence of foreign tourists. The country that consistently topped Bloomberg's COVID resiliency rankings now faces the prospect of a double-dip recession.

The use of robots has been accelerated by the crisis, in both manufacturing and in the services industry, reflecting the need for both workers and customers to be protected from the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Looking ahead to a revival in productivity growth spurred on by the prospect of greater robotic usage, in the process millions of jobs are on the line. The question of whether new ones will be created in the changeover, a blank slate.

In eight of the world's largest economies, over 100 million people may be faced with a need by 2030 to change their occupations ... and those most likely to suffer from gaps in their skill levels are identified as the less educated, women, ethnic minorities and the young.  Skills tend to atrophy, in a process known as hysteresis, the longer people are out of the workforce.

"A lot of those jobs are gone forever."

"Low-wage job in marginal companies or marginal sectors are gone as the companies have gone bankrupt or the sectors have been hollowed out."

"A lot of the more-adaptive companies will have filled the void, but with fewer workers."

Eric Robertson, global head of research, Standard Chartered PLC

An Amazon Fulfillment Center in Washington state. Workers have partnered with machines