Weekly Health Digest: Making Gyms Safer, Wildfire Smoke Health Risks, Plant-Based Meat, and Bees treating Breast Cancer

A summary of important health news from the past week

Making Gyms Safer: Why The Virus Is Less Likely To Spread There Than In A Bar

By: Will Stone

With the closure of many gyms since March, the slow-opening at a smaller capacity is barely enough for many gyms to stay open. Business owners have to hire more workers to keep the gyms sterilized and have cut down the number of machines available for use. Although the gyms are complying with regulations, many are angry with the conglomeration of gyms with bars and restaurants; masks can stay on at gyms, distance can be maintained and the membership model allows for contact tracing for any COVID-19 breakouts. Public health experts within the article explain that due to the variety of safety measures taken by fitness clubs, generalizing about the safety or re-opening of any gym is impossible.

The orange skies and smoky air from Western wildfires, explained

By: Umair Irfan

Smoke from wildfires is posing a health hazard to millions of people, adding more stress to communities burdened with Covid-19. Across Colorado, California, Oregon, and Washington, residents are waking up to orange skies. Soot, ash, and smoke pose serious health threats to people even hundreds of miles from the fire. Air quality is rated on a scale from good, moderate, unhealthy, and hazardous. And across several areas in the West Coast, the air quality has degrade to the worst category to the point where breathing the air is comparable to smoking 12 cigarettes in a day. The mixture of smoke and ash can cause serious damage to your airway, lungs, and heart. And for those with pre-existing conditions, the wildfire smoke can increase the risk for heart attack and stroke.

Is Plant Based Meat Actually Good for You?

By: Toby Amidor

Plant based meat has taken grocery stores by storm. According to Reuter’s, Beyond Meat, Inc has increased its shares by 700% since their debut in May 2019, but one question is on everybody’s mind: is plant based actually better? Registered dietitians delve into the ingredients of plant-based meats and find that they contain rice, peas, mung bean, canola oils, coconut oils, and synthetic yeasts and hemes for additional nutrients. Because there is a lot of processing in plant-based meats and because the nutritional content is similar to beef, these meals are about equal in calories and saturated fat, and higher in carbs and sodium. Plant based meats do provide more fiber, but from fiber added into the ingredients – not from actual food like legumes, nuts, seeds or whole grains. Although this trend stems from nutritional advantages, it is about the same as eating real meat, so the choice is truly arbitrary. 

Cancer Projects to Diversify Genetic Research Receive New Grants

By: Emma Goldberg

The New York Genome Center has recently awarded research grants as part of their Genome 1000 initiative to diversify cancer research. The initiative is aimed at closing the knowledge gap that exists because cancer research has focused disproportionately on white patient populations. Oncologists and researchers are not sure if the research results they are generating can be applied to underrepresented minority communities. The function of the initiative is to examine the role of race and ethnicity in major types of cancer. There are many socioeconomic factors that affect racial disparities in cancer. However, some types of cancer affect racial groups differently regardless of socioeconomic status. This leads researchers to believe that genetics may play a critical role.

Venom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells

Researchers in Australia and England have found a significant correlation between melittin, an anti-cancerous component found in Perth honeybee venom, and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells. The Perth bee, found primarily in Australia, has been known to be one of the healthiest species of bees in the world. Its extremely potent venom was found to destroy cancer cell membranes within one hour and reduce the messages of cancer cells that contribute to cancer cell growth within 20 minutes. It was also found that melittin can also be used in conjunction with other chemotherapy chemicals to treat highly aggressive stages of breast cancer, leaving another example that it is possible to treat human diseases with nature.