The blood of women

In case you were worried, you can in fact get a transfusion of red blood cells from women and — despite what you may have heard — not die.

And no, it’s not an urban legend or Marjorie Taylor-Greene press release: There actually have been studies showing the sex of a red blood cell-donor might affect the recipient*. But now Swedish researchers have decided to be definitive, using the records of almost 370,000 patients.

The result: No, neither the “sex or previous pregnancy of blood donors affects survival in patients who receive red blood cell transfusions.”

* Women’s blood contains less hemoglobin.

Monkeypox news

Warning! Warning!

The WHO is warning that Europe is looking at a serious outbreak, and it needs to “to boost surveillance, engage with at-risk communities and collaborate internationally to curb transmission.” (No such warning for the U.S. because there’s no point — it’s not like we’re about to listen to health advice that isn’t on TikTok. Plus, did you know that all the monkeypox cases in the U.S. are within 500 miles of a 5G tower? Coincidence?)

As for vaccination…

There’s a good reason it’s not going to be given out like the Covid shot: It’s disgusting. If nothing else, it leaves an ugly scab* for a few days that needs to be covered because its contagious. And as any union organizer will tell you: When you have a scab, you picket.

* It’s much worse, but I will spare you the description.

Middle-age sleep

Are you or someone you know in your 40s? Congrats: That’s rock-bottom, at least in terms of sleep.

So report the good folks at August University’s Medical College of Georgia, who found that “A graph of how long Americans sleep forms a U-shaped pattern across our lives, with age 40 being the low point and hours of sleep.” Sleep duration starts to increase again at about 50.

A bit of good news: Sleep efficiency — that is, how much of sleepytime you actually sleep — remains stable from 30 to 60. It’s just that the actual time is lower in middle age.

Paxlovid has its limits

Pfizer’s antiviral has become the go-to Covid-19 drug to keep people out of the hospital, but it doesn’t do much for people at low risk of serious disease.

The company is saying the antiviral doesn’t really do much for people who have breakthrough infections, or for “standard-risk patients.” In fact, it stopped enrollment in a clinical trial when it realized the pills weren’t helping.

It’s not that Paxlovid isn’t good, it’s that it’s not better than doing nothing — at least in terms of preventing severe illness.

The clinical trial previously flopped on its primary goal, showing the Pfizer antiviral was no better than placebo at sustaining symptom relief for four consecutive days. Now, the company is calling it quits on the study after finding it hard to read any signs of potential benefit because of an already low rate of hospitalization or death in the standard-risk population.

So low-risk people don’t have a treatment, but chances are they don’t need one.

Remove the roadblock

At least one pharmacist — the dean of USC’s School of Pharmacy — argues “It’s time to let pharmacists prescribe Covid-fighting pills like Paxlovid.” Time is critical, he says, and “Patients aren’t getting them because not enough prescriptions are being written.”

Just when you thought you might relax a bit

So you’ve done what you can about Covid, you aren’t worried about monkeypox, and you’re ready for quail hunting knowing that bird flu will make chicken more expensive. Time to take a break from viruses for a bit.

Not so fast. UGA’s John Drake would like to share “What You Need To Know About The Outbreak Of Japanese Encephalitis In Australia.” You thought it just affected pigs? Mais non! “As of June 1, Japanese encephalitis had sickened over 40 people and killed 5 Australians who lived in different states.”

“[O]fficials and industry experts are worried that widespread transmission in Australia could result in introduction to other parts of the world, including North America.”

Beverages-and-health news

Coffee is safe during pregnancy

Aussie researchers had heard (anecdotally) that limited coffee consumption was safe, but they wanted to prove it genetically. Huh?

It seems there are certain genes that increase your coffee consumption*. So rather than ask real pregnant women to change their habits— and rely on them to be trustworthy — they examined the maternity records of moms with those genes. Assuming the genes predicted their behavior, they found that “there was no greater risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or premature birth.”

* What, you thought it was a choice?

Liver cancer yeses and nos

No: higher alcohol intake. (It’s first metabolic product, acetaldehyde, “stimulates oxidative stress, generates DNA adducts, and modifies related genes.”)

Yes: Coffee, tea, milk, and yogurt — all of them seem to be protective of the liver for various reasons, according to the researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who used data from 200,000 patients to come to these conclusions.

The difference: Unlike previous studies, they say, this one actually shows causality, not just association.

Lager for your gut

It’s a good kind of beer gut, guys! Well, technically a lager gut. A small study out of Portugal found that…

“[H]ealthy men who drank one alcoholic or non-alcoholic lager daily developed a more diverse set of gut microbes, which is associated with a lower risk of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

For those who don’t know, there are two types of beer: lager and ale. The stuff you buy from the corner gas station — Coors Light, Budweiser, Miller Lite, etc. — are lagers. So really, this could be titled, “Beer is good for your guts.” (I will not get into lager vs. IPA, though.)

*Note: I take everything from the ACS with a grain of salt. In this case, I can’t tell who funded the study without paying for it — it might be Anheuser Busch for all I know.