The clothes you wear when you work out may do you more harm than helping you to stay healthy as you hit the gym. This is because research has revealed alarming levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical compound linked to significant health risks in several sports wear, including sports bra, leggings, and athletic wear. The Center for Environmental Health (CEH), which is a nonprofit consumer advocacy group has brought these concerns to light, and have raised awareness about the potential danger and damage these sports wear can cause because of the common chemicals used.

What is BPA? Is it concerning?

Bisphenol A, or BPA is a chemical that is used to make plastics and resins. It is also used in certain fabrics and is known for its endocrine-disrupting properties, which can also interfere with one's hormonal balance. There have been studies, including a 2019 study titled The adverse health effects of bisphenol A and related toxicity mechanisms that have linked BPA exposure to various health problems, including asthma, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes, and even cancer.

Many of research which have been conducted focus on the ingestion, which can happen when you store food in BPA-lined containers. Among them, some of the more recent studies show that skin absorption is also a pathway. This means when you are handling receipts which are printed on thermal paper, or wear BPA-containing fabrics, the chemical can seep through your skin and enter your bloodstream.

Though it is also true that BPA is exposed from the body within days, however, continuous exposure from multiple sources can be concerning.

Sports Wear and the harm it may cause you

CEH also tested popular athletic wear in October 2023 and found BPA levels were exceeding California's safety standards by as much as 22 times.

Testing also showed that top brands contained up to 40 times the permissible limit of BPA.

What do the laws say?

As far as laws are concerned, under California's Proposition 65, the maximum allowable dose for BPA exposure via skin is 3 micrograms per day. While this law is among the strictest in the United States, it highlights a broader issue of chemical safety in consumer products nationwide.

Ana Soto, an immunologist with decades of research on BPA, even low doses of dermal and oral exposure can combine to create a significant health risk. She also warned that prolonged exposure through fabric, especially when you are exercising, as your pores are open and sweat is present, can in fact, amplify these effects.

How does BPA affect your health?

BPA can disrupt your body's endocrine system, which is a network of glands and organs that produce hormones that control many bodily functions. These include growth and development, metabolism, and reproduction, to name a few. BPA can mimic natural hormones like estrogen and interfere in those bodily functions.

Studies also link it with obesity and diabetes, respiratory issues, especially asthma risk in school-aged children, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer risks.

How can you be safe?

There are certain steps you can follow to protect yourself:

• Avoid wearing BPA-lined sports-wear
• Change immediately after your workout
• Do not wear sports-wear for an elongated period

A shingles vaccination effort launched in Wales in 2013 has produced two findings that bring new optimism to dementia research. The program appears not only to lower the likelihood of mild cognitive impairment but also to slow the course of dementia in people who already have the condition. Shingles stems from the varicella zoster virus and causes a painful rash.

Around one in three people in the United States will experience shingles during their lifetime, with the risk rising sharply with age. For this reason, adults aged fifty and older in the United States are advised to receive two doses of the shingles vaccine.

The vaccine has long been known to prevent shingles with an effectiveness above ninety percent for older adults, but recent work suggests it may hold additional advantages.

What Is Shingles?

Shingles, or herpes zoster, is caused by the varicella zoster virus, which is also responsible for chickenpox. It usually presents as a cluster of blistered skin on one side of the body, often forming a band across the torso. After a person recovers from chickenpox, the virus stays in the nerve cells and can reactivate years later, especially when the immune system weakens, according to Mayo Clinic.

What Is Dementia?

Dementia refers to a collection of symptoms that include significant problems with memory, reasoning, and daily function. It results from damage to brain cells caused by several conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Although dementia becomes more common with age, it is not considered a normal part of growing older, as outlined by the World Health Organization.

Shingles Vaccine Linked To Dementia Progression

Growing evidence indicates that receiving the shingles vaccine may lower the chances of developing dementia. A new study, published Tuesday in the journal Cell, builds on earlier research by proposing that the vaccine might also slow existing dementia, which could reduce the risk of death related to the disease.

“We see a change in the odds of dying from dementia among people who already have the condition,” said Dr. Pascal Geldsetzer, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University and senior author of the new study.

“That means the vaccine may not only prevent dementia, but it might also serve as a form of treatment because we notice improvements in people already living with the disease,” he said. “This was both surprising and encouraging.” The new study follows earlier work by Geldsetzer and his team showing that shingles vaccination may help delay or prevent dementia.

In that earlier analysis, researchers reviewed health records from older adults in Wales, where a shingles vaccine program for people in their seventies began on September 1, 2013. Under the rules of the program, individuals who were seventy-nine on that date could receive the vaccine for one year, while those aged eighty or older were not included.

That cutoff allowed researchers to compare outcomes between seventy-nine-year-olds who were offered the vaccine and eighty-year-olds who were not eligible but might have chosen to be vaccinated had they been allowed.

Challenges With The Shingles Vaccine And Reducing Dementia Progression

The next task will be to understand why the shingles vaccine might influence dementia risk or progression. The answer may lie in interactions involving the nervous system or immune response. Certain viruses that affect nerve tissue have been linked in animal studies to the harmful protein accumulation seen in Alzheimer’s disease.

Future research may examine larger and more diverse groups of people, and may also explore how the newer shingles vaccine compares with the older version used in Wales in 2013, which has since been replaced.

“At least directing part of our research efforts toward these pathways might bring important progress in both prevention and treatment,” said biomedical scientist Pascal Geldsetzer from Stanford University.

Of the many medicines that we consume on a day to day basis, we are not aware of how gradually they are actually making our health worse. One medicine that is common in many households, especially in India households, as points Dr Obaidur Rahman, Ortho and Sports Surgeon is pantoprazole, popularly sold under the name PAN40, PAN Top or PAN D. These medicines are used to treat and relieve symptoms of heartburn, which is a common symptom of acid reflux and GERD.

"A patient came to me, he was an 80-year-old male. He has a habit of taking this tablet regularly, and because of that he suffered an osteoporotic fracture. This means he fell while walking and fractured," points out Dr Rahman.

He says that many people, old and young, alike, have a habit of taking this pill like a multivitamin. In fact, they have substituted with pro and prebiotics and assume that it helps with digestion. However, he points out, "If you take this regularly, your gastric mucosa stops responding against proper acid production. And there is also an impairment in digestion."

He says that in clinical practice, it has been found that this common household medicine, which is often procured as over-the-counter or OTC medicine, meaning, without prescription, could cause Vitamin B12 deficiency, and magnesium deficiency.

What Does The Science Say About Pantoprazole Use?

As per a 2023 study published in the journal BioMed Research International, pantoprazole cause bone loss, which could be prevented by adding octreotide.

The study analyzed the serum levels of calcium, phosphorus, and ALP before starting the treatment, and at the end of 12 weeks of treatment on pantoprazole, significant decline in calcium levels were noticed, as compared with other groups. The study also found that octreotide significantly prevented the effect of pantoprazole on the serum levels of calcium and ALP.

The study also found that pantoprazole decreased femoral bone density and femoral BMAD. Besides this, another decrease was found in the femoral bone weight and volume as well as the trabecular volume.

Another study from 2021, published in the European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology pointed out that 12 patients had major fractures and showed changes in serum Mg2+ and Ca2+ levels over a period of 1 month as well as the animal study also showed ionic imbalance over 8-week treatment with pantoprazole. Bone density measured for the patient at the end of the 1-month treatment was found to be in the osteopenic category, together with the animal study which showed a decrease in femur bone strength for the animal treated with pantoprazole over a period of 8 weeks.

Are There Any Safer Alternatives To Pantoprazole?

Pantoprazole contain Proton Pump Inhibitor (PPI), and prokinetic, long-term use of PPIs is associated with the risk of bone fracture. However, alternatives like Histamine H2-receptor antagonists or H2 blockers are effective alternative that do not cause bone loss, notes a 2020 study published in journal Bone, titled Comparative analysis of the risk of osteoporotic fractures with proton pump inhibitor use and histamine-2 receptor antagonist therapy in elderly women: A nationwide population-based nested case-control study.

The safer alternatives are:

Famotidine (Pepcid, Calmicid, Fluxid, Mylanta AR) is a potent H2 blocker used to manage acidity and heartburn. Studies show that famotidine is not thought to raise the risk of osteoporosis.

Other options: Ranitidine (Zantac - where available, as it was withdrawn in some markets due to safety concerns) and Nizatidine are other H2 blockers.

Note: Health & Me do not encourage discontinuance of any prescribed medicine by a doctor. Before making any change in your medicine schedule, please speak to your doctor/GP.

This flu season could be brutal, say the early clues that scientists have gathered. This comes as the world already struggles keeping up with the new variants of COVID, however, the COVID rates in the US appears to be low. Though researchers are expecting the virus to circulate more widely in the coming months as people gather for holidays.

This is also the time for common cold. Dr William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center tells the New York Times that if you feel ill, but your symptoms remain only above the neck, that is, a stuffy nose, a sore throat, then it could just be a common cold.

However, if the symptoms lead to hacking cough, and down the neck, which makes your muscles ache and body tired, that it could be a flu or COVID. Due to the similarities in the symptoms, even infectious disease specialists also struggle to tell the difference.

Symptoms To Take A Note Of

COVID

How it begins: Initially, symptoms of COVID can mimic flu-like symptoms

What are the primary symptoms of COVID?

• Loss of taste
• Loss of smell
• Sore throat: the new variants are also causing razor-sharp pain in the throat
• Diarrhea or stomach upset

The biggest difference here is the dry and persistent coughing, which when you have a cold will not be dry in nature.

How it impacts? The COVID may vary from mild to severe

Since the pandemic, Covid has blurred the lines between seasonal infections. Current strains can trigger flu-like fatigue, fever, and cough. But the loss of taste or smell and digestive issues are stronger indicators of Covid.

For confirming COVID, test is the only key. There are now at-home tests available online and at drugstores too. An at-home test could detect both, a flu and COVID.

Common Colds

How it begins: The symptoms of common cold starts gradually.

What are the primary symptoms of Common Cold?

• Stuffy or runny nose
• Sore throat, but not razor-blade like pain
• You may feel pressure in the ears

Here, the biggest difference is also in cough, which is often mucus-filled and chesty. Whereas in COVID, the cough is dry.

How it impacts? While it is annoying in the beginning, especially due to the blocked nose and ears, the congestion clears up overtime and usually doesn’t stop daily activities.

Colds typically start with a tickle in the throat or pressure in the ears before progressing to nasal congestion and cough. Most people can carry on with their routines despite the discomfort.

Flu

How it starts? In many cases, the flu may catch you out of the blues, many describe the onset as sudden.

What are the primary symptoms of Flu?

• Fever
• Chills
• Muscle aches
• Exhaustion

While the cough here is also dry in nature, which may make one get confused with COVID, there is no razor-blade like symptom, which can be used as a marker to differentiate.

How does it impact? Flu often requires bed rest.

Unlike a cold, flu can leave you feeling completely wiped out. Body aches and high fever are distinguishing features, and recovery often takes several days of rest.