Infections Here, Infections There…

This week in health news, let’s take a look at infections outside and in, and how to walk away from it all (in a good way):

The bird that flu away

This one cannot be described as good news. Basically, bird flu is now already epidemic amongst cows in the US, with 845 herds (not 845 cows; 845 herds) testing positive across 16 states. The US Department of Agriculture earlier this month announced a federal order to test milk nationwide. Researchers welcomed the news, but said it should have happened months ago—before the virus was so entrenched. It currently has a fatality rate of 2–5% in cows; we don’t have enough data to reasonably talk about its fatality rate in humans—yet.

❝It’s disheartening to see so many of the same failures that emerged during the COVID-19 crisis re-emerge❞

~ Tom Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations

Read in full: How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic

Related: Cows’ Milk, Bird Flu, & You

Alzheimer’s from the gut upwards

Alzheimer’s is generally thought of as being a purely brain thing, but there’s a link between a [specific] chronic gut infection, and the development of Alzheimer’s disease. This infection is called human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV for short, and usually we’ve all been exposed to it by young adulthood. However, for some people, it lingers in an active state in the gut, wherefrom it may travel to the brain via the vagus nerve “gut-brain highway”. And once there, well, you can guess the rest:

Read in full: The surprising role of gut infection in Alzheimer’s disease

Related: How To Reduce Your Alzheimer’s Risk

Walking back to happiness

Analyzing data from 96,138 adults around the world, showed that more steps meant less depression for participants.

You may be thinking “well yes, depressed people walk less”, but more specifically, increases in activity showed increases in anti-depressive benefits, with even small incremental increases showing correspondingly incremental benefits. Specifically, each additional 1,000 steps per day corresponded to a 9% reduction in depression:

Read in full: Higher daily step counts associated with fewer depressive symptoms

Related: Walking… Better.

Take care!