Traveling provides an opportunity to enhance our knowledge, meet new people, and enjoy the taste and atmosphere of far-away places.  Traveling can be interesting and fun, unless something goes wrong.  Flying is one of the safest ways to travel, but there are risks.  A few days ago, a Spanair MD-82 flight to the Canary Islands crashed on takeoff and killed 153 people. Nineteen people survived the crash.  No amount of preparation can get you ready for this type of accident, but most trips end up uneventfully.  People get to where they want to go in spite of the delays in the airports, and they accomplish their business or they have a good time.

As I was walking in the living room today, the porcelain figurines on my bookcase caught my attention, and I thought about travel.  These ceramic figures are the only survivors of a trip that I took to Europe many years ago.  I had gone to Spain and Italy on business for a couple of weeks.  When I did not work, I took the opportunity to know the countries better.  In Spain, I drove a rental BMW from Madrid to Costa del Sol in Andalucía, which is by the Mediterranan Sea.  I visited cities like Torremolinos and Marbella, but I did not get as far as Gibraltar.  Many faces in the south of Spain reminded me of my maternal relatives.  I am sure that some of my ancestors came from there.

One of the interesting things that you can do on a trip is to gather souvenirs.  You can look at them later and remember where you were and re-imagine your adventures.  As I traveled in Spain, I encountered some beautiful ceramic figurines and bought four of them.  The price was about $15 Dollars each because they were Tengra ceramics, rather than the more expensive Lladro ceramics.  My statuettes were carefully wrapped in multiple layers of paper and placed in large boxes.

After one week in Spain, I spent another week in Pisa, Italy.  From there, I drove to Rome where I stayed overnight in preparation for my trip back to the United States.  After I packed everything in the car to go the airport, I went to check out of the hotel.  During the time that I was checking out, someone jimmied the car open and stole all my luggage.  The thief probably had a small car and could not fit the bulky boxes with the ceramics.  I went to the police station and filed a report.  I received a copy of the complaint, and drove immediately  to the airport.  I checked-in the boxes with the figurines with the airline and took the flight home.

When I arrived in Washington, D.C., I waited at the baggage return for my boxes, but they never came.  I went to the airline counter to ask about my lost boxes, and they told me that they would investigate.  So, there I was with only the clothes on my back after a two-week trip to Europe.  The customs agent eyed me with suspicion, but let me through.  My boxes with the four figurines arrived safely several days later.  They had been loaded on a different flight by mistake.

I spent the next few weeks going over my receipts to make a list of what I had lost.  I submitted claims to my employer, to the car rental agency, and to my home insurance.  Of course, the insurance agents asked me if I was in financial trouble, trying to figure out if I was pulling an insurance scam.  In the end, I got reimbursed for most of my losses.  I only have these ceramic figures to remind me of that trip, and I also know that somewhere in Italy, an Italian thief is wearing my clothes.

Genistein - an isoflavone

For many years, soy foods have been promoted as vegetarian health foods.  Soy products like tofu, textured vegetable protein, and soy milk continue to gain shelf space in grocery stores.  The massive use of soy in the diet is relatively new, and evidence is starting to accumulate that soy foods may actually be unhealthy.

Soy foods are usually highly processed.  Tofu is made by grinding soy beans to make a slurry (soy milk) which is then coagulated with calcium sulfate (gypsum) or magnesium chloride.  The problem with soy is not its processing, but its content of the isoflavone genistein which can mimic natural human estrogens and may have a variety of harmful effects when eaten in sufficient quantities.  In addition, some bacteria in the digestive system can metabolize soy products to produce equol, another phytoestrogen.

Plant-produced chemicals that mimic hormones have been previously suspected of altering sexual development.  Dr. William Campbell Douglass II writes that girls have become sexually mature at younger ages and that their breasts start to develop in the first and second grade while the boys are experiencing delayed sexual development.  He goes on to say that he believes that this is the reason why boys and men are becoming gay and infertile.

A scientific study at North Carolina State University (NCSU) found that exposure to phytoestrogens alters the sex-specific organization of the hypothalamus, which is the region of the brain that regulates puberty and ovulation.[1]  The two hormone-like compounds from soy-based foods can cause irreversible changes in the structure of the brain, resulting in early-onset puberty, symptoms of advanced menopause, and reproductive health problems.   The NCSU study suggests that humans might be more at risk during gestation.

In light of the available evidence, it seems reasonable that women should avoid eating soy products during pregnancy, and that young children should not be given soy products which may alter their hormonal balance.

[1] Bateman HL, Patisaul HB., Disrupted female reproductive physiology following neonatal exposure to phytoestrogens or estrogen specific ligands is associated with decreased GnRH activation and kisspeptin fiber density in the hypothalamus,
Neurotoxicology, 2008 Jul 6, PMID: 18656497 [news release]

Ipomoea batatas cv. Ayamurasaki

The Japanese island of Okinawa is famous for the longevity of its inhabitants.  One of their traditional foods is a native sweet potato with a deep violet center.  The color of the Okinawan sweet potatoes is due to anthocyanins which act as antioxidants in the body and are supposed to have a multitude of health benefits.  These sweet potatoes are avidly sought by practitioners of Calorie Restriction who are interested in longevity and optimum nutrition.

The Okinawa purple sweet potato was introduced to Hawaii and is occasionally found in the mainland, mainly in Asian markets.  The potatoes take a deep purple color when cooked.  They have a slightly sweet, starchy taste.

Baked Salmon with Okinawa sweet potatoes

The baked salmon illustrated here was prepared by basting with lemon juice, and sprinkling salt, pepper, and fresh dill.  It was baked at 350°F for 20 minutes.  The sweet potatoes were cut into 1-inch cubes and boiled for approximately 15 minutes until they were fork-tender.  Slices of tomato and avocado were used as garnish.

Last Sunday, a 19-year old driver fell asleep at the wheel as she was driving on the Chesapeake bay bridge.  The bridge has two spans which normally carry one-way traffic in different directions, but on this day, there was two-way traffic because one of the spans was closed for repairs.  The car with the sleeping driver drifted unto the oncoming traffic and a collision involving several vehicles sent an 18-wheeler tractor-trailer plunging into the Chesapeake Bay.  The driver of the truck was killed.  The sleepy driver was hospitalized and was reported to be in good condition.

Sleep deprivation may cause paranoia, hallucinations, as well as cognitive and psychomotor impairments. In one experiment, people who drove after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in many western European countries.

Always get a good night’s sleep before you drive or operate machinery.  If you feel tired while driving, stop to rest and take a nap.  Think of the consequences.  What kind of life will you have after an accident?  If you survive, you may end up disabled or feeling guilty for the rest of your life for having injured someone through your negligence.

We naturally assume that boxing is a dangerous sport because its purpose is to try to knock out the opponent.  However, statistics from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) indicate that the greatest number of visits to hospitals occur from basketball.  Injuries from basketball include cut hands, sprained ankles, broken legs, as well as eye and forehead injuries.  The large number of injuries may be due to the popularity of basketball.  There are basketball hoops in many driveways and playgrounds.  It seems so easy to bounce the ball around and shoot a few balls.  It is the jumping and competitive aspects of the game that cause the injuries.  Players collide, fall, hit each other accidentally, or land improperly after jumping and they get hurt.

Exercise is important for fitness, but we have to stay alert and keep safety in mind.

Let us say that you meet a person who has visible symptoms of a curable disease that you can easily recognize.  Should you say something about it?  I am not talking about something like a birth defect or Down’s syndrome that really cannot be treated, but an ordinary infectious disease like warts or a fungus infection.  You may be able to help the person get treatment by being open and frank, but you run the risk of becoming a meddler whose intentions are misinterpreted.

Bearers of bad news are seldom appreciated.  I remember reading a story many years ago about a doctor who was shot in a hospital emergency room when he told a woman that she was pregnant.  It was not the doctor’s fault that the woman was pregnant.  He just said something that the woman intensely disliked and she directed her rage toward the innocent doctor.  Generally, it is a bad idea to give bad news or meddle in other people’s affairs.

Yesterday, at a restaurant, I saw a waiter with a bad case of Tinea Capitis.  His hair was completely shaved, probably in an attempt to minimize an unsightly appearance.  However, his scalp had patches of red and irritated skin typical of a Tinea fungal infection.  I knew that with proper treatment his skin would be normal in a few weeks, but I kept quiet.  It was not my business.  This incident reminded me of a conference that I attended many years ago.  I happened to sit behind a woman wearing a dress with an open back.  The skin in her back had larva migrans tracks from hookworms.  Obviously, she had bathed in contaminated water or lain on a contaminated beach.  I did not say anything then either.

I feel somewhat guilty for not actively going out of my way to help these people.  However, I provide information so that those who seek it will find it.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has published new guidelines for prostate cancer screening.  The report in the Annals of Internal Medicine points out that the benefits of the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test are uncertain or minimal, whereas the risks are large and dramatic.  The PSA test itself is just a simple blood test; it is what happens after an elevated PSA result is obtained that causes the harm.

The level of PSA which indicates cancer is not the same for every man.  Therefore, it is necessary to do surgical biopsies to determine if there is cancer.  A positive PSA test causes anxiety and may lead to unnecessary surgical biopsies which can be painful and cause serious complications.  Several studies have shown that men age 65 and older who were not treated for prostate cancer were equally likely to survive as those who were treated.  Many of the ones who were treated ended with impotence, incontinence or other undesirable side effects.  The new recommendation basically concludes that if the therapy is not providing substantial benefit, the screening is not beneficial either.

In the US, prostate cancer is diagnosed in about 186,000 men each year, and about 29,000 die from it.  There is some evidence that the phytonutrients and polyphenols in pomegranate fruit juice and green tea can reduce PSA levels and prevent prostate cancer.[1,2]

[1] Arshi Malik, Farrukh Afaq, Sami Sarfaraz, Vaqar M. Adhami, Deeba N. Syed, and Hasan Mukhtar, Pomegranate fruit juice for chemoprevention and chemotherapy of prostate cancer, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 October 11; 102(41): 14813–14818.

[2] Gupta S, Ahmad N, Mukhtar H., Prostate cancer chemoprevention by green tea, Semin Urol Oncol. 1999 May;17(2):70-6. PMID: 10332919

My sunflower just started blooming.  It grew from some seeds that were thrown in a flower pot two years ago.  The sunflower is probably the highest in Maryland because it is on top of a 20-story building.

One of the trick questions when I was in elementary school was:  “Where is the highest skyscraper in the world?”  At the time, the Sears tower had not been built, so the Empire State Building was the logical answer.  WRONG!  The highest skyscraper is in Mexico City.  Since Mexico City is 2250 meters or 7400 feet above sea level (about one and-a-half miles up in the sky), the highest skyscrapers have to be there.  If the question had been “Where is the tallest skyscraper in the world?” the answer might have been different.

Exercise your mind with some puzzles

This morning, I woke up to the cheerful chirping of some goldfinches in my flower pots.  In the springtime, I harvested some lettuce from these flower pots.  When the lettuce was trimmed, I found some Thai basil growing from seeds scattered by the wind.  I let these plants grow around my petunias.

Every time that I water the pots, the basil releases a wonderful sweet aroma.  Both the petunias and the basil stems are a great attraction for the bees, but now that the basil blooms are forming seeds, finches are perching on the stems to feed.  The birds probably scatter some seeds as they feed, and this is how the basil came from the penthouse to the flower pots in my balcony.  My neighbor downstairs will probably have basil in her flowerpots next year.