Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase, and they prefer blondes with smelly feet

Mosquitoes appear to prefer blonde people with smelly feet. Did you see the moon last night? Got mosquito spray? Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase! There are more striking facts in this video excerpt from National Geographic.

The video is part of the Amazing Animals YouTube playlist by National Geographic:



Medical Geek Humor on Twitter

The tweets below are part of the series Medical Geek Humor on Twitter - they recall a TED moment from 2009:

@loic Bill Gates released mosquitoes at #TED we're all leaving the room and getting sick about 4 hours ago from web


@stevewhitaker Don't worry about the buggy mosquitos Gates released at #ted. Microsoft's working on a patch that's due out next year. about 14 hours ago from twitterrific
AllergyNotes Releasing mosquitoes by Bill Gates into a startled crowd at TED described as "an amazing TED moment" http://is.gd/iu0o about 12 hours ago from web

AllergyNotes Gates spreads malaria message with mosquitoes http://tinyurl.com/cxwo2e 12 minutes ago from TweetDeck

pyknosis Nice to hear Bill Gates picked up a hobby during his retirement: entomology. http://is.gd/izJn (Not surprised he likes the blood-suckers.) 14 minutes ago from web

pyknosis Don't get me wrong. Not saying B Gates is a bad person. He's not. He just created and championed software that can suck the life out of you. 12 minutes ago from web
pyknosis BTW, now that I understand the context, I think this is a winner of a tweet: http://is.gd/izK5 11 minutes ago from web: "If Steve Jobs had released mosquitoes, everyone would be wanting one."

If you are included in this post but would like to have your tweet removed for any reason, please email me and will comply with your request the same day.



Comments from Twitter:

Vijay @scanman: Mosquitoes are mini-vampires

Tariq @ucisee: Mosquito biting activity increases 500 times during a full moon phase - "appear to pref blonde with smelly feet."

Kathy Mackey @mkmackey: Ha! No one likes full moon!

Following DASH Diet Improves Brain Activity in Overweight Adults

A new study suggest that the DASH diet in combination with regular exercise improves mental activity by 30% in overweight adults compared with those who didn’t diet or exercise. The DASH diet was developed for the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) study and emphasizes low-fat dairy products and low-cholesterol foods as well as carbohydrates and fruits and vegetables.

Researchers say high blood pressure affects about 50% of adults aged 60 and older and increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of mental decline like dementia.

These are 5 healthy lifestyle factors associated with a lower risk of developing high blood pressure:

1. Healthy weight: body mass index (BMI) of less than 25.
2. Daily exercise: average of 30 minutes of vigorous exercise per day.
3. Heart-healthy diet (DASH).
4. Moderate alcohol use.
5. Use non-narcotic pain relievers less than once per week.

References:

DASH Diet Fuels the Brain - WebMD.
Top diets of 2012 - from Cleveland Clinic health blog http://buff.ly/X2I4BJ
6 healthy lifestyle factors associated with a lower risk of developing high blood pressure
A table to show the impact of lifestyle interventions on blood pressure http://bit.ly/johjzs - Great for patient education.

Related:

What is the best diet in the world? DASH Diet, according to the latest review. TIME, 2011.
The long history of dieting fads: "soap should be eaten for its diuretic properties", wrote a prominent surgeon in 1810. Lancet, 2012. 

Brain decoding: MRI deciphers brain activity to figure out whether someone has been to the scene of a crime

Neuroscientists are starting to decipher what a person is seeing, remembering and even dreaming just by looking at their brain activity. They call it brain decoding.

In this video from the journal Nature, we see three different uses of brain decoding, including a virtual reality experiment that could use brain activity to figure out whether someone has been to the scene of a crime.



Comments from Google Plus:

Russell Faust: Awesome! Now how long will it be until people are being arrested for thought-crimes by the Pre-Crime Squad? 

Amanda Bennett @abennett: Do you WANT people to look in your brain? RT @DrVes:MRI deciphers brain activity to see if you were at a crime scene goo.gl/fb/Ez8Rx

10 Ways to Increase Your Physical Activity

Participation in sport is associated with a with a 20—40% reduction in all-cause mortality compared with non-participation. Exercise might also be considered as a fifth vital sign, according to the Lancet: http://goo.gl/gyxYf

Here are some helpful tips from one of the PLoS blogs, Obesity Panacea:

1. Take the stairs as often as possible.
2. Drink plenty of water.
3. Park as far from the front door as possible.
4. Clean your home regularly.
5. Gardening and yardwork.
6. Disconnect your cable for the summer.
7. Buy a pedometer.
8. Use active transportation and public transit.
9. Have “walk-meetings”.
10. Go for a family walk after dinner.

"Health Promotion" video: Benefits of exercise:

Telomeres are the chromosome tips which shorten each time a cell divides, making them a possible marker of aging. Exercise delays telomere shortening, and potentially slows the aging process in humans. A study of 2400 twins showed that physically active people had longer telomeres than sedentary people. According to the authors, this provides a powerful message that could be used by clinicians to promote the potentially antiaging effect of regular exercise.


Human chromosomes (grey) capped by telomeres (white). Image source: Wikipedia, public domain.

References:

10 Simple Ways to Increase Your Physical Activity

Image source: OpenClipArt.org, public domain.