Eating More Plant Protein May Help You Live Longer

In a Japanese study, researchers concluded that eating more plant protein helps one to live longer compared to obtaining protein needs from meat. The study
followed 71,000 middle-aged persons for about 20 years. A comparison was made between those who eat the smallest amount of plant protein as those who consume the largest amount of plant protein. The study showed that the people who eat more plant protein are 13 percent less likely to die. Frank Hu, nutrition department head at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, also said that meat protein is usually linked with chronic diseases and death and that plant protein comes with lower health risks. In the study, around 12,000 people have died due to various diseases. Hu was not part of the research conducted but was able to say that eating more plant protein food is really good for the health as it also contains other beneficial nutrients. Also, the study conducted has its limitations because the diets of participants were only considered once. This is not conclusive as these
people may have changed their diet over time.

Should You Exercise While Sick?

“People cannot deny that exercise is good for our health. Doctors suggest that a human body should be engaged in a medium physical activity for at least 150 minutes every week. It is easy to achieve for a lot of people as most have a daily exercise routine. But during times when one is sick, should he/she continue engaging in physical exercise? Does exercising help the person recover easier or will it delay the healing process? Health expert Dr. Edward R. Laskowski says that mild to moderate exercise is actually beneficial with common holds as it helps open nasal passages allowing the person to breathe more easily. Geralyn Coopersmith, a physical fitness trainer, says that as a general rule it is okay to work out if it is just some cold and the person does not feel sick. Both Laskowski and Coopersmith say that one should be more cautious when the pain is experienced below the neck. Other signs include a higher-than-normal body temperature, fatigue, widespread muscle pain, and tightness in the chest. Experts say that taking a break while sick will not affect one’s performance as he/ she can always go back to his/ her normal routine once he/ she is feeling better.”

Many People Don’t Know the Dangers of Alcohol

Alcoholic beverages have been classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2012. According to WHO researchers, drinking
alcohol can cause at least seven different forms of cancer. However, according to WHO health experts, many people are unaware of the association between alcohol and cancer. They think it is important to warn people that alcohol is a carcinogen that has been linked to an increased risk of cancer. Some scientists are hesitant to suggest a connection between alcohol and cancer. One of them is not Dr. Jernigan. He focuses on one form of cancer in particular: breast cancer. Because of the way alcohol interacts with the female sex hormone estrogen, women are particularly vulnerable. The WHO has urged countries to take concrete steps to curb overall
alcohol consumption. Dr. Jernigan refers to these criteria as the “three A’s”: attractiveness, affordability, and availability. According to him, research indicates that addressing these three A’s will help reduce alcoholism. He claims that if you deal with attractiveness by restricting ads, affordability by dealing with price and raising alcohol taxes regularly, and physical availability by dealing with price and increasing alcohol taxes regularly, it is possible to eliminate alcohol issues. It is not a difficult job.

WHO: Possible to Defeat Malaria, But Probably Not Soon

“The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that it is possible to eradicate malaria, but this is unlikely to happen using existing methods. In 2017, the disease malaria infected about 219 million people. In that year, 435,000 people died as a result of the epidemic. The vast majority of the victims were babies and children from Africa’s poorest regions. These figures haven’t changed much since 2016. However, the figures are lower than the 2010 figures of 239 million infections and 607,000 deaths. Officials from the World Health Organization have long desired to eliminate malaria. In 1955, the United Nations launched a program to combat the epidemic, but it was halted in the 1960s. Malaria can be effectively treated with a number of medications. In order to control malaria-carrying mosquitoes and infections, sleeping under chemically treated bed nets has proven to be safe. GSK, a pharmaceutical firm, has also developed a malaria vaccine that has shown to be partially effective. Ghana and Malawi are now using the vaccine. However, according to the WHO report, these tools will not be enough to completely eliminate the malaria threat. It calls for further research and development of “transformative technologies and expertise” to combat mosquitoes and produce more effective vaccines and treatments. Sian Clarke is the co-director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine’s malaria center. Since mosquitoes transmit malaria by infecting people with a parasite, she believes that eradication would be feasible only if there is a sense of urgency.”

High School Student Names NASA’s Mars Helicopter

The first helicopter to be sent to Mars has been named by a high school student. The name “Ingenuity” was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the United States’ space agency, in a competition where thousands of students from around the world participated. Vaneeza Rupani, a junior at Tuscaloosa County High School in Northport, Alabama, proposed the name. According to NASA, Rupani was one of the 28,000 students of all ages across 50 nations, who submitted. The names were proposed as part of a naming competition for NASA’s upcoming Mars explorer that ended in March. Rupani explained her name choice in her submission. Ingenuity, she wrote, is what helps one to “accomplish amazing things” and “expand our horizons to the edges of the universe.” Ingenuity reflects “the principles that our helicopter tech tutorial will showcase,” according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. The explorer, which weighs about 1,043 kilograms, will gather samples from Mars before returning to Earth, according to NASA. It shall also collect climate and geology data, as well as search for signs of past existence.

Ancient Humans May Have Entered Europe Earlier Than Once Thought

Human bones found in Bulgaria suggest that humans had settled in Europe thousands of years ago. The discovery indicates that humans and Neanderthals, our nearest ancestors, coexisted on the continent for much longer than previously assumed. Scientists analyzed four pieces of bone and a tooth that emerged from four Homo sapiens, the earliest of which dates back to about 46,000 years ago, according to genetic research. The previous discovery of human bones occurred in Romania; attempts to date these bone fragments were insufficient. They were most likely 40,000 years old, give or take a few thousand years. The bone material also contained Neanderthal genes, indicating that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens had mated about 200 years ago. According to the scholars, Europe’s ancestors arrived from Africa about 47,000 years ago, during a brief time of warming. This suggests that humans and Neanderthals coexisted on the same continent for around 7,000 years, communicating periodically but not regularly.

Scientists Study Sea Creature Which Makes a Home of Body Fluid

The great builders of the sea are a group of tiny deep-sea creatures. They have the ability to create complex homes that provide security and food; they use the fluid that comes out of their head to build these structures. When the structures are broken up, the insects, known as giant larvaceans, create a new one. Some people refer to these houses as “snot palaces” because they resemble massive houses made of mucus, a fluid created by living tissue. Some people claim that if scientists can work out how larvaceans make their homes, it will benefit the construction industry. Kakani Katija, a bioengineer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California, is one of them. Her research on the so-called “snot palaces” was recently published in Nature Journal. The species are also beneficial to the ocean climate. When the creatures’ homes are taken apart, they dump millions of carbon on the seafloor which reduces global warming.