ArcaMax

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis is a kind of chronic liver inflammation and scarring caused by excessive fat cells in the organ. It is quite common -- approximately 22 million Americans have it. Untreated, it can progress to liver cancer and organ failure.

As with diabetes, intensive lifestyle and diet interventions are the first line of treatment. A new study confirms that diet and exercise not only improve liver health but actually accelerate recovery.

Patients with MASH underwent a rigorous regimen of exercise and a restricted diet. Over 10 months, they increased muscle mass and lost 13 to 22 pounds, compared to zero to 9 pounds for a control group. Various imaging and diagnostic technologies showed improved cardiovascular health, insulin management and reversed damage in the liver.

You Can Pick Food, Not Genes

Picky eating may be genetic. In a UK study, scientists polled parents of identical and fraternal twins about their eating habits at 16 months, then at 3, 5, 7 and 13 years old.

Fraternal twins were more likely to be different in their fussy eating habits than identical twins, indicating a large genetic influence, reported STAT.

"The identical twin pairs ... increasingly diverged in their picky eating habits as they got older, suggesting environmental factors, such as having different experiences and friends, is a bigger factor in eating habits as children age."

Body of Knowledge

The average human body temperature is not 98.6 F. As a species, we run a bit cooler: 97.9 F. That's the conclusion of a new study (and others) that assessed the temperatures of more than 126,000 people between 2008 and 2017.

The old standby of 98.6 F is the work of a German physician named Carl Wunderlich, who reportedly took more than a million measurements from 25,000 people more than 150 years ago. However, he used multiple methods -- oral, armpits, skin, rectal -- under widely varying circumstances. Temperature-taking technologies are much better now.

We may also be cooler because we are generally healthier. Some scientists speculate that more people in Wunderlich's time were likely fighting low-grade infections and inflammation -- just part of 19th-century life -- and their usual body temperature reflected it.

Of course, normal individual temperatures range. Some people simply run hotter or cooler. The normal range is considered between 97 F and 99 F. Anything over 100.4 F is considered a fever caused by infection or illness.

Get Me That, Stat!

Roughly 48 million Americans face some level of hearing loss linked to exposure to excessive noise, according to the Apple Hearing Study. One in three Americans is regularly exposed to excessive noise levels, categorized as sound above 70 decibels.

Seventy decibels is comparable to a washing machine or vacuum cleaner, but the Environmental Protection Agency says exposure to levels 55-60 dB can be disturbing or annoying, and extended exposure to levels over 70 dB can lead to measurable hearing loss.

Mark Your Calendar

November is awareness month for diabetes (and diabetic eye disease), bladder health, three types of cancer (lung, pancreatic and stomach), Alzheimer's, epilepsy, healthy skin and healthy bladders, prematurity and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Doc Talk

Anosognosia: A neurological condition in which the patient is unaware or cannot recognize one or more health conditions that are clinically evident

Phobia of the Week

Dentophobia: Fear of dentists; odontophobia is the fear of what they do.

Best Medicine

"Mr. Phelps, Dr. Wynsczkrepskyvich will see you now."

"Which doctor?"

"No, he's an MD like all of the others."

Hypochondriac's Guide

In 1657, a Dutch physician named Job van Meekeren recorded the case of a Spanish patient who could stretch the skin of his left breast to his left ear and pull the skin at the base of his neck over his chin.

The patient suffered from dermatolysis, a rare condition that causes the skin and subcutaneous connective tissues to loosen and lose elasticity, with a tendency to hang in folds. It is caused by inherited gene mutations, and variations are often considered to be autoimmune disorders.

There is no cure, but symptoms and complications can be managed with medications and surgery.

Observation

"My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far, I've finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already." -- Humorist Dave Barry

Medical History

This week in 1846, the first U.S. patent for an artificial leg was granted to Benjamin F. Palmer of Meredith, New Hampshire (No. 4,834). The leg had a pliable joint that worked noiselessly and preserved its contour in all positions. It presented no openings in the exterior of the legs about the joints and contained tendons of gut and springs arranged in such a manner as to provide extra elasticity, strength, durability and freedom of motion than previously available in artificial legs patented in other countries.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "Simple exercises to flatten your potential."

Published in 2011 in the journal Physical Review D, this paper is really only for someone with a strong but not necessarily flat stomach for astrophysics. It's about the inflationary potential in cosmology.

Sum Body

Question: How many of each of these body parts do you have?

1. Baby teeth

2. Adult teeth

3. Neck vertebrae

4. Bones in the hand

5. Bones in the middle ear

A) 3

B) 20

C) 27

D) 32

E) 7

Answers: 1-B; 2-D; 3-E; 4-C; 5-A.

Curtain Calls

In 2000, a 19-year-old Southwest Airlines passenger named Jonathan Burton became combative during a flight and began hitting fellow passengers and attempting to enter the plane's cockpit.

He was subdued when as many as eight passengers piled on top of him, some beating him. He reportedly died of a heart attack.

========

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Copyright 2024 Creators Syndicate Inc.