Knowing the bug

Everyone^* knows that antibiotics don’t work for viruses, but sometimes you can’t be sure what a patient has, so might as well throw some whatevercillin at it. The obvious problem being the rise of antibiotic resistance.

But now Stanford scientists say they have a simple test that “can separate bacterial and viral infections with 90% accuracy.”

It’s a gene-expression test, and it looks at how a patient’s immune system responds to an infection — and that’s different depending on the pathogen. Not only is it accurate enough to meet WHO’s standards, it works around the world no matter the person or the bug infecting them.

^* Not everyone

Cause and effect — it’s a real thing

Kids’ vaccination rates are dropping (Georgia is one of nine states with fewer than 90% having all their shots, based on the latest CDC data) and cases of once-thought-eradicated diseases are reappearing. Seriously, polio?

Of course most of it is due to misinformation — aka, lies — making people think vaccines aren’t safe. Pro tip: They are. And if we can’t get that through to parents, their kids are certainly going to learn the hard way.

People trust pharma companies

Strange days, indeed: Pharmaceutical companies have taken the top spot as the most-trusted industry, knocking tech companies to second place in the annual Ipsos global report on trust.

That’s not to say most people trust pharma companies — about 34% rated them trustworthy, and 22% said they were untrustworthy. (For tech it was 33% thumbs-up, 22% thumbs-down.)

Meanwhile, more people trust government (22%, up from last year) and social media (22%, also up from last year). Ipsos does point out that the poll was taken before Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, though.

Cancer deaths drops big-time

The US has seen a whopping 33 percent decline in cancer deaths since 1991 — that’s something like 3.8 million people, many of whom are probably really nice folks.

What’s caused the drop? Better screening (ergo, earlier detection), better lifestyles (e.g., much less smoking), vaccinations (leading to a 65 percent (!) decline in cervical cancer), and of course better treatments.

The one outlier: prostate cancer, where screening guidelines are confusing and lifestyle changes don’t have as much effect.

Exhalation

Not that your job would ever give you stress, but if you know someone else dealing with it, there’s a breathing exercise you can do — and it’s actually backed by science.

A study out of Stanford found that what they call “cyclic sighing” works even better than the gold standard of mindfulness meditation to improve mood and reduce stress.

It’s complicated, so take notes:

1. Inhale at a normal rate.
2. Hold for a fraction of a second — just a brief pause.
3. Exhale deliberately and slowly over about 10 seconds.
4. Repeat for several minutes.

That’s it. The idea — they think; ‘further studies are needed’ — is that focusing on that long exhale is what does the trick — inhaling increases heart rate while exhaling reduces it.

(You might have heard of “box breathing,” where you spend five seconds inhaling, five holding, five exhaling, and five waiting; it’s supposed to help relax. Well this is better.)

Above link is to the news story; here’s the study itself if you like charts and stuff.