Body Bugs - Dust Mites, Eyelash Worms and Gut Flora

Continuing Bug Week, this article will address some of the creepy-crawlies that help us out every day. These quiet heroes clean us up and, in some cases, are responsible for keeping us alive. All they ask in return is a little real estate. So, once again, if you’re squeamish, please wait until next week before reading my blog.

As kids, we’re all told to beware of bed bugs biting us in our sleep. Now, bed bugs are pests that feed on our blood. If you’ve been following the news, recently their numbers have skyrocketed and the United States is on the verge of a bed bug epidemic. But there’s another bug in your sheets that’s much nicer than the bed bug – the dust mite.

Look at this little guy. Isn’t he cute?

This adorable little bug eats your skin. No, not in the same way that the scabies bug eats your skin. The dust mite is kind enough to wait patiently for your dead skin to fall off before he chows down. So he sleeps in bed with you at night, with thousands and thousands of his friends, acting as a loofah to clean you off.

How thoughtful!

Dust mites don’t carry disease, nor do they injure their hosts (us). The only downside to living with dust mites is if you’re allergic to them. If you are, then you’ll need to take special precautions to avoid a lot of itching and sneezing.

Next, the eyelash worm.

Although his proper name is demodex folliculorum, “eyelash worm” is much easier to pronounce (and type.) This little fella lives on your face, especially if you wear a lot of make-up or have oily skin. He, and up to two of his buddies, burrow into your hair follicles and eat your excretions. In other words, they live off of the stuff that would otherwise make your face dirtier, including old make-up. What’s really neat about these charming little worms is that after they eat your skin waste, they keep it inside them. Eyelash worms produce no waste, carry no illnesses, and cause no harm to us. They used to get a bad rap for causing blackheads, but that medical myth has been debunked.

Still, if you’re paranoid about these tykes munching on your Maybelline, just scrub your face with soap and water – the less they have to eat, the fewer will come to hang out.

And now we talk about some of the most important bugs in your body – gut flora.

 Okay, I’ll admit, this ISN’T cute. But it is important for your survival.

Gut flora aren’t technically insects. They’re bacteria that live in the walls of your gastro-intestinal (GI) tract. In fact, there are ten times as many bacteria in your intestines than there are cells in your whole body!

These “bugs” help you digest your food. High concentrations of two particular gut flora, Bifidobacter and Acidophilus (both present in yogurt,) can help you digest fiber, produce B vitamins and vitamin K, and help you break down drugs. In biology, we call this a symbiotic relationship – we give gut flora a place to live and provide them with food, and they in turn provide us with vital nutrients.

But gut flora are delicate and an improper diet can cause them great harm. Excess alcohol, antibiotics, or even processed food can cause Bifidobacter and Acidophilus to die out. With them gone, new neighbors take refuge in your intestines. And these new neighbors aren’t the nice kind who salt your sidewalk or invite you over for barbeques. These are the bad neighbors that party into the wee hours of the morning, let their dogs loose in your yard, and cause diarrhea and malnutrition. In fact, new studies have shown that poor concentrations of these probiotics (pro = for, biotic = life) can lead to diabetes and obesity.

So, see? Not all bugs are bad. Some have only your best interests at heart!

Except mosquitoes. Those things suck.

Aside from an awesome haircut and accent, this pharmacist has some great information about intestinal health that you might find interesting.

FDA Allows Cockroaches in Chocolate and Maggots in Tomato Sauce

If you’re a squeamish person, I’d wait a week before checking my blog. I’m dedicating this week to writing about bugs and our relationship with them.

The game show Fear Factor routinely challenges contestants to eat live insects, or drink blended bug concoctions. But the critters on Fear Factor wouldn’t be as scary if everyone knew we eat bugs on an everyday basis. The truth is that commercial farming has to produce so much food that it’s impossible to remove all contaminants. Instead, the FDA imposes safe limits on the concentration of these contaminants allowed in our food.

Now, by “safe” they mean, “what you don’t know (in this case) won’t hurt you.” And by “contaminants,” they mean bug pieces, eggs and animal waste.

I told you we were getting gross this week.

I first learned about insect contaminants when I purchased a bag of pistachios from Manzella’s Fruit Market. I left the bag in my pantry for a week until I noticed moths in my kitchen. No matter how many I swatted, they kept coming. I opened my pantry to see my pistachios crawling with larvae.

That was ten years ago. I haven’t eaten pistachios since.

But from that ordeal, I learned that not only are pantry pests common (I talked to about a dozen people with similar stories,) they cannot be avoided. Some bugs in my pistachios likely died during the roasting process, but prior to bagging, the nuts were in the open air and vulnerable to re-contamination.

Cocoa is similar. Cocoa is grown and processed in Africa, close to the crop. This means that all the yummy little cockroaches that feast on the beans can make it into the finished product as well. The FDA allows for 75 insect fragments per 50 grams of sampled cocoa powder.

For tomato puree or tomato sauce, the FDA allows either 20 fly eggs per 100 grams of sauce OR 10 fly eggs and one maggot per 100 grams. Given the choice, I’d take the extra eggs, wouldn’t you?

So now that I have you thoroughly grossed out, I’ll admit that I have no problem eating bugs. The only reason I don’t eat pistachios is because I’ve developed a stronger affinity to cashews. Most people know that insects are a dietary staple around the world. If someone offered me a bowl of fried crickets I’d give them a taste, so long as they were spiced up a bit. My only gripe is that I wish the information about bugs in food was more accessible so it wouldn’t provide such a shock. 

Often, the relationship between these critters and our food is a vital one. For instance, figs cannot ripen without the help of the fig wasp. Without these bugs nestled at the center of every fig, pollinating the fruits, we wouldn’t have Fig Newtons!

Further benefits of eating bugs are being explored. With the world population now at seven billion and climbing, sustainable food is a pressing issue. Professor Arnold van Huis from Wageningen University in the Netherlands said, “Producing [2 pounds] of meat from a cow requires [29 pounds] of vegetable matter as feed. Yet [2 pounds] of meat from a cricket, locust or beetle needs just [4 pounds] of fodder, and produces a fraction of the CO2 emissions.

So, what do you think? Are bugs the “green” meat of the future? Or are you going to stick by your Raid cans?

If you’re daring or just curious, visit the FDA website to see the safety standards of many commercial foods.

Bottled Water: Bad for teeth, environment and your wallet -- Part II

This is the second half of a two part post about bottled water. Please be sure to visit the first post about the effects of bottled water on dental health.

Regulations looser for bottled water than tap water

Fun fact: the FDA has fewer regulations on bottled water than they do on tap water. This is not to say that tap water is automatically better than bottled water – bottled water companies could hold their product to a much higher standard than water treatment plants. However, the water coming out of your faucet has no choice but to meet these high standards, whereas bottled water could legally backslide. So if you’re looking for a safe bet in terms of quality, I’d go with tap water.

Bottled water: Bad for your wallet

Not to mention, drinking from the tap is exponentially cheaper than drinking bottled water. Treated tap water costs about a penny a gallon. Compare that to a $1 bottle of water, which costs 5 cents an ounce.

As a poor college kid, I know what I’ll be drinking.

Bottled water: Bad for the environment

Here are some quick statistics about the environmental impact of bottled water:

• It takes three liters of water to produce one liter of bottled water, due to the nature of creating plastic
• In 2006, 17 million barrels of oil were required for the production of bottled water – this figure does not account for the oil it then took to transport the bottles for consumption.
• The United States alone consumes 500,000,000 bottles of water per week. Put end to end, these bottles could circle the planet five times.
•  Eighty percent of plastic bottles end up in landfills, where they will take thousands of years to break down.

We’re all taught that recycling is better than throwing things away, but recycling is only one part of a greater strategy for dealing with this mess. In grade school, I was taught the three R’s: Reduce, Re-use, and Recycle. Recycling plastic bottles is great, but it’s not enough on its own. To truly cause an impact, we need to reduce our consumption of bottled water, and whenever possible, refill a bottle throughout the day instead of grabbing a new one.

I found this video, the Story of Bottled Water, to be entertaining and informative. If you like it, check out some of the other videos on the website – they all take a closer look at so many consumer products we take for granted.

Bottled Water: Bad for teeth, environment and your wallet -- Part I

This is part one of a two part post on bottled water. Today I will talk about the effects that bottled water has on dental health. Tomorrow will be about how bottled water is regulated versus tap water and how bottled water affects the environment.

I want to start by saying that I’m not the kind of guy who holds a grudge. (Who am I kidding? I totally am.) But this article is not about some gripe I have against bottled water. I will be the first to admit, in many scenarios, drinking bottled water is preferable to drinking the local supply. For instance, when traveling to foreign countries, bottled water is a good way to avoid unfamiliar bacteria that would love to have you spend the rest of your vacation locked in the bathroom. Also, when in a secluded area that relies on well water, bottled water can keep hard minerals and other possible contaminants out of your system.

That said, I can now get to my main point: bottled water, when consumed in lieu of tap water, is terrible for your teeth, your wallet, and the environment.

Bottled water: Bad for your teeth

Check out the label on any toothpaste box and you’ll find that Fluoride, or some parent ingredient, is in every tube. The ADA reports that regular treatment of fluoride can prevent cavities. This is why water companies add trace amounts of fluoride to the water supply the same way most table salt companies add iodine to their product. The doses are incredibly low (in the case of fluoride, less than two parts fluoride ions per million parts of water, or 0.0002 percent of the water you drink) and prevent disease (cavities and goiter, respectively.)

A few years ago, I was regularly drinking bottled water because I believed it was healthier than tap water. After all, it’s purified water – how can tap water compare? Well, after sticking to my “pure water only” rule for about a year, I visited my dentist and had to have three cavities filled in. My enamel, he said, was dissolving – what had I been drinking? I told him I didn’t drink any type of soft drinks, coffee, or tea, and instead have been sticking to only water. When he asked if I was drinking tap water, I laughed and told him that I only drank “pure” water. And that’s when he told me bottled water was the reason why I’d have to sit in a chair for the next 30 minutes with a drill in my gums.

Now, there is a lot of controversy surrounding fluoridated water. Some people believe that fluoridated water is part of a government plot to chemically control the citizens of the United States. I could spend several posts analyzing these arguments for logical fallacies, scientific inaccuracies and the like, but I’ll save us both the time and effort with this following sentence – everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there are bigger things to be afraid of than federally regulated, scientifically tested, dentist recommended tap water.

Join me tomorrow for part two, where I will talk about how bottled water has looser regulations than tap water, and how bottled water affects the environment

Water: Healthy Hydration with Dinosaur Pee

Your body is 60 percent water. Chances are you’ve heard that before. So it stands to reason that water is important in keeping your body healthy.

But why did I mention dinosaur pee in the title?

Grade-school children across America are taught about the water cycle and how all of the water on Earth is constantly changing forms. The water on our planet is all the water we’ve ever had, and all the water we will ever get. Think about it – how could we get more? Martians would have to show up with cases of Alien Evian.

Since the water we currently have is all the water the world has ever had, then it goes to reason that dinosaurs drank the same water we do. And if dinosaurs drank it, they also eliminated it. So that means that when you showered this morning…

Ewww!

When I was a kid, I drank a lot of soda pop. In fact, most of the water I drank was filtered and chocked full of high fructose corn syrup. As a result, I suffered from debilitating migraines. My doctor put me on pills, ran blood tests, and told me that my head pains were genetic. But when I decided to cut the pounds and drop the sugar, I switched to drinking water. Now, instead of having migraines every month like in middle school, it’s rare that I have more than one a year.

More than 90 percent of the chemical reactions in your body occur in water, including the metabolic process of breaking food down into energy. No water, no energy. Also, because it is a natural solvent, your body dissolves nutrients and resources in water, and then passes that liquid through your blood stream. Water not only serves as transportation, but it cools you off through perspiration and it is the building block of every tissue in your body – including your bones!

Imagine your body is a car and water is oil. With fresh oil, the car is lubricated and the engine functions efficiently. The oil is drained regularly and it carries with it small metallic shards, which is why it isn’t clear like it was when it came in – oil carries off waste. But what if you forget to add more oil? The engine overheats, parts melt or break, and the car is ruined.

Now, a standard car uses five quarts of oil. Fortunately for us, the metaphor isn’t perfect. Humans, on average, need to drink at least two liters of water a day. There’s a common “8 by 8” rule that suggests drinking an eight-ounce glass of water eight times a day. This rule is easy enough to remember, but your need for water might be greater than mine. If you are physically active, pregnant, or regularly drink coffee, tea, energy drinks, or alcohol, your body is at a greater risk of dehydration. For a more accurate estimate of how much water you should be drinking each day, visit the hydration calculator.

Vitamin C: From curing scurvy to fighting the common cold

Ahoy mateys!

Aside from eye patches, peg legs, and Johnny Depp, what do you associate with pirates?

Scurvy!

Scurvy is a disease where fluid stores in the body. Sailors with scurvy would be paralyzed, their old wounds would re-open, their teeth would fall out, and they’d bleed from every opening in their body. It wasn’t pretty and the image reminds me of something you’d see on an episode of House.

Now imagine a man sitting in the hospital, literally rotting alive in the bed, and the doctor hands him a glass of Tropicana. Not an I.V., a syringe, or a pill – an ice-cold glass of orange juice. The man tells the loony doctor to walk the plank… But it works. After a couple of glasses the bleeding stops, the man can move, and he walks out of the hospital with the cheapest medical bill in history.

James Lind, a British doctor, did an experiment that studied the effects of citrus on scurvy in 1747. He isolated a component of the fruits, an acid, which directly cured scurvy in his patients. He couldn’t identify much else about the acid, so he called it “ascorbic acid,” as in “anti-scurvy acid.”

Today, we know ascorbic acid by its more popular name – vitamin C. Scurvy wasn’t a disease so much as it was a nutritional deficiency. It affected sailors because storing fresh fruits was difficult on long voyages. After Lind’s study became public, however, the British Navy ordered all ships to be stocked with limes. This was the origin of the British’s (often derogatory) nickname, “Limeys.”

So aside from being a cool story, what does this have to do with you? Well, as Captain Barbossa would say, “I’m getting to that, ye mangy dogs.”

Many foods are fortified with vitamins now, from tea to corn flakes, making it nearly impossible to come down with scurvy. But Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel prize-winner, claimed in his 1987 book, How to Live Longer and Feel Better, that vitamin C can prevent the common cold. Since then, people have flocked to the vitamin as a cure-all. Some drug companies have capitalized on its popularity and have released products like Emergen-C and Airborne for stopping the flu at its first symptoms.

But does vitamin C work as well as popular culture would have us believe? Well, dead men (and apparently doctors) tell no tales.

An article entitled "How to boost your immune system" from Harvard Medical School warns that most studies done on vitamin C have been poorly designed and therefore do not scientifically prove the acid’s positive effects. However, one article from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) reports that regimens of vitamin C and zinc reduce the severity and duration of respiratory infections like the common cold. The study went further to talk about the benefits of these two vitamins on pneumonia, diarrhea, and malaria. And another study from the NCBI reported that vitamin C increases immunoglobin levels (IgA and IgM)and other factors of the immune system.

So the medical community may not be in consensus whether it’s an apple or an orange a day that will keep them out of a job. But as for me, I’m putting my dubloons on a cold glass of pulp-free OJ.

Yargh!

(For more information on any of the topics covered today, please click the darkened phrases)

Fiber: Good for digestive health, bad as food additive

I have a confession:

I giggle every time I see Jamie Lee Curtis on those Activia commercials. I didn’t grow up during the 80s, so I’m not used to her roles as “Scream Queen.” Instead, when I see her, I shout to my mom, “Hey look! It’s the poop-yogurt lady!”

It doesn’t matter how high-class your sense of humor might be, most people will laugh at jokes about Number Two. Whenever I’m not feeling particularly clever, I enjoy telling such a joke to my 11-year old cousin, Nick. If I can get him to laugh, then I know I’ve still got it.

Everybody poops. The children’s book had it right. And as most adults know, fiber plays a role in that process.

But what is fiber?

Its technical name is cellulose, and it’s a complex polysaccharide with glycosidic linkages at carbons one and four. But I expect few people to know what that means and ever fewer to care. I took organic chemistry courses and even I can’t read that sentence without hearing static.

Simply put, fiber is a carbohydrate – a sugar. But you won’t be sprinkling cellulose in your coffee because humans can’t digest it. It’s what keeps stems upright and it’s what makes bark tough. Termites can digest cellulose and that’s why they love munching on the wooden beams behind our walls.

The body is an amazing machine. If it gets something it knows it can use, it holds on to it and processes it. But if you take in fiber, your body recognizes that it can’t break it down and gets rid of it. Fiber acts like Drano – it pushes its way through your digestive tract and helps move stuck things in the process.

But cellulose has been used for other reasons lately.

Processed foods like microwave dinners or even white bread can be abundant in cellulose. The fiber content in these foods goes beyond that of its constituent plant-based ingredients. Why? Because many food companies use powdered cellulose as filler. It is tasteless, cheap, and with minimal effort can take just about any shape. So to save a few bucks, it’s easier to use cellulose in a pre-packaged dessert cake than flour, sugar, or other premium ingredients. And as a bonus, because of the cellulose content, the brand can advertise as “High Fiber” or “Reduced Fat.”

Hey, wait… Something stinks, here…

The truth is your body can only process a little bit of fiber at a time. An abundance of fiber in your system is detrimental to regularity and digestive health. And since fiber naturally comes from plant life, it’s easier (and tastier) to eat a couple servings of fruits or veggies than it is to shell out cash for Metamucil.

For a more complete list of foods that use cellulose as filler, check out the slideshow15 Food Companies That Sell You Wood