Measles makes body 'forget' how to fight infection

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-50251259#
By James GallagherHealth and science correspondent31 October 2019
SPL
Measles has a devastating impact on the body's immune system that could make it harder to fight infections for years, a pair of studies show.
The virus can cause "immune amnesia" - meaning the body forgets how to fight bugs it once knew how to beat.
Measles also resets the immune system to a "baby-like" state, compromising its ability to devise ways of tackling new infections.
Experts said the findings showed the importance of vaccination.
Remind me, what is measles?
Measles is a virus that initially causes a runny nose, sneezing and fever.

A few days later it leads to a blotchy rash that starts off on the face and spreads across the body.

Most people will recover, but measles can cause life-long disability. It can be deadly, especially if it causes pneumonia in the lungs or encephalitis (swelling in the brain).

It is estimated that 110,000 people die from measles each year around the world.

A rash is the most obvious symptom of a measles infection / GETTY IMAGES

Where do these findings come from?

The findings were based on detailed analysis of unvaccinated children in an Orthodox Protestant community in the Netherlands.

Blood samples were taken from the children, and then again two months after a measles outbreak in 2013.

Research groups in the United States, UK and Netherlands were analysing the samples to assess the impact of measles on the immune system.

The focus was on antibodies - the tiny proteins that stick to foreign invaders - and the white blood cells that make them.

How does measles wipe out immune memory?

The immune system has a memory of the hostile invaders it has fought off before.

Part of this memory is kept in memory B-cells, which are a type of immune cell that has specialised in producing just one type of antibody.

But the measles virus can infect and destroy these cells, causing "immune amnesia".

Researchers at Harvard Medical School looked at blood samples from 77 children.

They used a tool, called VirScan, that is like a fancy fishing rod that can catch thousands of different types of antibodies.

It allowed the team to build up an incredibly detailed picture of the children's immune system before and after a measles infection.

Antibodies are tiny Y-shaped proteins that can stick to the surface of bacteria and viruses / GETTY IMAGES

Results, published in the journal Science, showed the children lost 20% of their repertoire of antibodies on average.

One child, who had a severe measles infections, lost 73% of the types of antibody they could produce.

"Measles is like the first 10 years of an untreated HIV infection compressed into a few weeks - that's the kind of immunological memory damage," Dr Michael Mina told the BBC.

How big a problem is this?

Not every antibody matters.

An antibody might be one (of the huge number) that do very little, but another might completely neutralise a microscopic intruder.

"If you delete that one then you've got a problem," Prof Stephen Elledge told the BBC.

Essentially, it is a game of chance but the more antibodies that get wiped out, the greater the chance of hitting a crucial one.

And without it, your body may be vulnerable to infection once again.

This was borne out in the study with one particularly well-known antibody (for neutralising respiratory syncytial virus) disappearing in some children.

Prof Elledge said measles was even more dangerous than people realised, as there could be "five times or more indirect deaths due to immune amnesia" than the initial infection caused.

The researchers think the biggest problem is in sub-Saharan Africa where malnourished children are more likely to have larger swathes of their immune system wiped out.

The studies have not been done to prove this, but the US team fear the figure could exceed 90% of the antibodies.

"Those are the ones we think are the greatest concern," said Dr Mina.

How does measles make it harder to fight new infections?

As well as memory B-cells there are naive B-cells and it is the latter we rely on to fight off something new.

"They are the armour underneath," said Dr Velislava Petrova, from the Sanger Institute said.

Her study, published in Science Immunology, looked at 26 children and also showed that measles can wipe out the memory of previous infections.

But the research also showed the virus had an effect on the naive B-cells too.

These cells have their DNA rearranged - a process called somatic recombination - so the immune system can produce a diverse array of back-up antibodies.

The hope is one of them will work against a new infection.

GETTY IMAGES

Babies start off making a very narrow range of antibodies, which become more and more varied with age.

Measles hits the reset button so the immune system only has a limited range of antibodies to work with.

Dr Petrova said: "The measles virus removed immune memory cells that are created in response to other pathogens they had seen before.

"They also returned the immune system back to a baby-like state where they have limited ability to respond to new pathogens."

How long do these effects last?

The pair of studies focused only on the immediate aftermath of a measles infection.

However, the research was partially inspired by a study that came out in 2015, which provides some clues to what happens in the long term.

It looked at patterns in causes of death in rich countries and showed that children were more likely to die for two-to-three years after a measles infection.

Those results suggest it may take that long for the immune system to fully recover.

The timescales may be different in poorer countries where diseases spread more readily, the researchers suggest.

Is there anything that can be done about it?

There are two answers to this question, and they are both vaccination.

Being immunised against measles, often through the MMR jab, almost eliminates the risk of catching measles.

But if somebody's immune system is devastated by measles then the researchers suggest they may need to have their childhood vaccines again.

"Revaccination against polio might not seem important in the UK or US, but in Afghanistan (one of the few places where the disease is still endemic) then you might want to vaccinate again," said Dr Mina.

GETTY IMAGES

Are there other forms of immune memory?

Yes.

The study looked only at antibodies and the B-cells that produce them, but there are also equally important memory T-cells.

Measles can infected these T-cells too, but the studies have not yet been done on what happens to them.

"We do have really interesting anecdotal evidence suggesting the T-cell response would be affected in a very similar way," said Dr Mina.

What do the experts say?

Prof Arne Akbar, president of the British Society for Immunology, said the studies were "elegant and thorough".

He highlighted the "crucial" finding that the MMR vaccine, which contains a weakened measles virus, did not cause immune amnesia.

"It is doubly important to make sure you and your children are vaccinated against measles," he said.

Liam Sollis, from Unicef UK, said: "With vaccination rates in the UK falling and recently losing our measles-free status, an outbreak is now a ticking time bomb.

"Vaccines are the safest and most effective preventative measures against highly infectious disease."

PERLUKAH BERJEMUR DI SIANG BOLONG UNTUK MENDAPATKAN VITAMIN D?

31 Things You Should Do to Avoid High Blood Pressure

rd.com/health/conditions/avoid-high-blood-pressure/?trkid=soc-rd-twitter
Denise Mann, MS

One in three of us have high blood pressure, and most of us don’t have a clue. High blood pressure causes no symptoms, yet it is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. There are many things we can all do everyday to keep our blood pressure in the normal range.

A 100-hour MRI scan captured the most detailed look yet at a whole human brain

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/mri-scan-most-detailed-look-yet-whole-human-brain

BY 

LAURA SANDERS 

A device recently approved by the U.S. FDA made extremely precise images of a postmortem sample

CLOSE-UP  A 3-D view of the entire human brain, taken with a powerful 7 Tesla MRI and shown here from two angles, could reveal new details on structures in the mysterious organ.

Over 100 hours of scanning has yielded a 3-D picture of the whole human brain that’s more detailed than ever before. The new view, enabled by a powerful MRI, has the resolution potentially to spot objects that are smaller than 0.1 millimeters wide.

“We haven’t seen an entire brain like this,” says electrical engineer Priti Balchandani of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, who was not involved in the study. “It’s definitely unprecedented.”

The scan shows brain structures such as the amygdala in vivid detail, a picture that might lead to a deeper understanding of how subtle changes in anatomy could relate to disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

To get this new look, researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and elsewhere studied a brain from a 58-year-old woman who died of viral pneumonia. Her donated brain, presumed to be healthy, was preserved and stored for nearly three years.

Before the scan began, researchers built a custom spheroid case of urethane that held the brain still and allowed interfering air bubbles to escape. Sturdily encased, the brain then went into a powerful MRI machine called a 7 Tesla, or 7T, and stayed there for almost five days of scanning.

The strength of the 7T, the length of the scanning time and the fact that the brain was perfectly still led to the high-resolution images, which are described May 31 at bioRxiv.org. Associated videos of the brain, as well as the underlying dataset, are publicly available.

Researchers can’t get the same kind of resolution on brains of living people. For starters, people couldn’t tolerate a 100-hour scan. And even tiny movements, such as those that come from breathing and blood flow, would blur the images.

But pushing the technology further in postmortem samples “gives us an idea of what’s possible,” Balchandani says. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first 7T scanner for clinical imaging in 2017, and large medical centers are increasingly using them to diagnose and study illnesses.

These detailed brain images could hold clues for researchers trying to pinpoint hard-to-see brain abnormalities involved in disorders such as comas and psychiatric conditions such as depression. The images “have the potential to advance understanding of human brain anatomy in health and disease,” the authors write.

B.L. EDLOW ET AL/BIORXIV.ORG 2019

This video moves from the outer wrinkles to the inner structures and then back out to the wrinkles of a complete human brain at extremely high resolution.

Menopause

Harvard research says these are the seven things to do to be happy

12 Things That Can Happen to Your Body If You Start Having More Sex

https://www.healthination.com/health/benefits-having-more-sex?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=organic-social-link
BY RACHEL SOKOL


Good_Studio / iStock / Getty Images Plus

How often *should* you have sex with your partner? How often do you *actually* have sex with your partner? Thanks to some nosy scientists who explore Americans’ bedroom habits for the sake of research, we have some data. A 2017 study in the Archives of Sexual Behaviorfound that the average adult has sex about 54 times a year, or about once a week. Other research has found that amount of sex—weekly—among committed couples is the magic number for happiness in a relationship. 

If you’re having sex less than that, that’s likely perfectly OK—as long as you and your partner are on the same page about how often you’d like to get busy. But more and more research shows that having regular sex benefits your body in surprising ways—and you might want to figure out what’s keeping you from having sex more often; not just for your relationship, but for your overall health too.

For real: Check out these 12 science-y reasons hooking up can be healthy. So, have at it, Doctor's orders!

1. You can burn as many as 100 calories

“If sex is vigorous enough, it can qualify as mild to moderate exercise,” says Yves-Richard Dole, MD, an ob-gyn at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. But even a hot-and-heavy romp isn’t a great substitute for your favorite HIIT class at the gym. The main issue: length (of time).

Most of the time, “sex is not vigorous for long enough to qualify as significant exercise,” says Dr. Dole. In one 2013 study, University of Montreal researchers had couples wear fitness trackers while they got busy. They found that men burned about 100 calories on average during a sex session that lasted about 25 minutes. Women burned, um, 69 calories. However other research—including a classic study published in the New England Journal of Medicine—found that a typical sex duration is much shorter, only about six minutes. That said, even if sex isn’t the same as a heart-thumping cardio workout, it’s better for your body than if you were to spend the equivalent time in bed scrolling Instagram or watching reruns on HGTV.

2. Your vagina can get healthier

The phrase “use it or lose it” applies quite well to sexual health. Regular sex can improve vaginal health by activating core musculature and contracting pelvic floor muscles, says Dr. Dole. (Pelvic floor muscles are the the pelvic organs—bladder, bowel, and uterus in women—and the bottom of the pelvis.) “These muscles help maintain correct bladder position above the vagina,” he says. “The increased tone can prevent incontinence. Through sex and regular Kegel exercises, pelvic organ prolapse—descending or drooping of organs—can be prevented.”

Having sex regularly can help the vagina from shrinking as a woman ages, adds Melissa Hague, MD, an ob-gyn based in Wichita, Kansas. That’s because feeling aroused keeps the mucus glands in the vagina active, which can help prevent dryness that occurs with age and perimenopause.

3. Your blood pressure could be lower

“Sexual activity reduces blood pressure in women,” says Kamala Tamirisa, MD, a cardiologist at ProMedica Physicians Cardiology in Toledo, Ohio. For one, you can thank the cascade of heart-healthy hormones released after you climax: Prolactin increases relaxation and sleep, which in turn helps overall emotional health and lowers blood pressure; the hormone oxytocin also helps reduce systemic blood pressure.

4. You could feel more zen

The thing with stress and sex is that it’s a bit of a chicken-egg game. When you feel stressed, a chemical reaction in your body works to suppress your sex drive, according to Venus Nicolino, PhD, a Los Angeles-based relationship expert (who goes by the moniker Dr. V). But the very act of having sex also releases stress-soothing hormones like oxytocin that promote relaxation and help counteract the effects of stress-promoting hormones like cortisol.

In other words, if you think you’re too stressed to have sex, doing the deed may be the very thing that could help bust the stress funk you’re facing. “I’m not saying you should push yourself into having sex no matter how you feel,” says Dr. V. But you could attempt to carve out time for sex—say, Saturday mornings or Thursday nights—so you have something to look forward to regardless of how stressed-out you might feel.

5. You could sharpen your memory

A recent study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior asked young women to do different kinds of memory tests; researchers found that those who engaged in more frequent sexual intercourse scored better on tests of abstract words. Other research has found that people who have sex more often fare better on memory tests with number recognition and face recognition than those who don’t have sex as frequently, says Jennifer Wu, MD, an ob-gyn in New York City. The theory is that sexual activity may promote better neural connections in certain areas of the brain responsible for these aspects of memory, but more research is needed to fully understand the potential connection—and biology behind it. Any volunteers?

6. Your heart may be stronger

Sex counts as gentle exercise, it lowers stress, reduces blood pressure, and promotes emotional well-being: all the ingredients you’d want for a top-notch ticker. And science backs up the sex-heart health connection: A study in the American Journal of Cardiology of 1,165 men found that those who did the deed only once a month or less had a 45 percent increased risk of having heart disease compared with men who said they had sex two to three times a week. (The researchers accounted for issues like erectile dysfunction, which could affect men’s ability to have sex as well as their heart disease risk.) The researchers encouraged doctors to consider a patient’s sexual activity as a marker for their cardiovascular and overall health.

7. You could snooze better

Since you’re less stressed, chances are you’ll sleep better after a romp in the sheets. “The main reason sex can promote sleep in women is due to the hormone oxytocin, which is released during orgasm,” says Alyse M. Kelly-Jones, MD, a Novant Health Mintview ob-gyn based in Charotte, North Carolina. “This so called “love hormone” has many effects in our body. Oxytocin and reduce the effects of cortisol, our stress hormone. Less stress and more calming feelings lead to better sleep.”

8. You might need to take fewer sick days

Forget apples: Could a more active sex life keep the doctor away? Maybe. For one thing, sex can lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which experts know can weaken your immune system. And other research suggests that sex may boost levels of certain immune system components known for fighting off germs. A small study from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, for example, found higher concentrations of immunoglobulin A—an immune system antibody—in students who were sexually active a few times a week. And University of Pittsburgh research found that people with the most social support—from romantic relationships, as well as family and friends—were less likely to come down with a cold after being exposed to a virus compared to those who felt less connected.

9. Your skin could glow

Who says you need regular facials for fresh, dewy skin? Postcoital glow is a real thing. Sex helps boost your circulation, which is necessary to maintain your body’s production of collagen, a protein that keep your skin looking supple and youthful. And by reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol, sex may also promote hormonal changes that can improve acne.

10. You could reduce your migraines

“I have a headache” may be the oldest excuse in the book to get out of a sexual encounter, but if you have a headache, sex may be a surprisingly potent way to treat it. One study of 1,000 headache sufferers looked at whether sexual activity had an impact on those prone to migraine or cluster headaches. They found that 60 percent of migraine patients reported relief if they had sex during an episode; on the other hand, only 37 percent of cluster headache patients said that sex helped make their pain feel better. One possible explanation: Endorphins, the body’s natural pain killers, are released during sexual stimulation, says Dr. Kelly-Jones. “Endorphins have a similar chemical structure to morphine, a synthetic pain killer, used for severe pain.”

What’s more, “a study of female migraine sufferers at the Headache Clinic at Southern Illinois University found that many participants had some or all the effects of the migraine alleviated by having an orgasm,” explains Los Angeles-based ob-gyn Pari Ghodsi, MD. While more traditional medications were overall more effective at treating migraines—don’t replace your headache medications with sex!—“women who did benefit from the orgasm received relief from the pain faster.”

11. Your periods could be less painful

Some couples are more squeamish than others about having sex during that time of the month, but for those who don’t mind, there’s a nice pain-relieving perk to be had. The same endorphins released during sex that could soothe migraines could also help quiet a crampy uterus, says Dr. Ghodsi. So instead of curling up on the couch in a ball with a dose of ibuprofen, you could try curling up in bed with your partner as a way to fend off period pain.

12. You'll have a stronger bond with your partner (and yourself)

Sex can improve your feelings of attractiveness and self esteem, says ob-gyn Kecia Gaither, MD, director of perinatal services at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, a member of NYC Health + Hospitals System in Bronx, New York. “From an emotional standpoint, sex improves bonding between the two individuals involved. When oxytocin, the love hormone, is released, it increases feelings of love and closeness.”

“Human beings crave connection, and the bonding that occurs during great sex can make the craziness of our world disappear,” says Dr. Kelly-Jones. “When we have good sex, we are happy and our partners are happy. We don’t seem to care as much about the dishes in the sink and the clothes that need to be folded. We smile big. And good sex creates more good sex. It’s such a positive feedback loop.”

Harvard-trained neuroscientist has a stroke and figures out the meaning to life

https://hackspirit.com/harvard-trained-neuroscientist-stroke-figures-meaning-life/
by Lachlan Brown





The ups and downs of life take up a great deal of our time and focus.

We worry about paying the mortgage and getting the kids to school on time. We worry about showing up late to a party or whether or not that cute girl or guy across the bar thinks we are cute.

But these worries can come to a halt pretty quickly when something goes wrong with your health.

And as Harvard-trained brain researcher, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor found out, a lot of things change when you lose the ability to access half of your brain.

She was no longer worried about trivial day-to-day things; she was worried about surviving.

Watch her inspiring TED talk to find out more:

The Right Brain vs. The Left Brain

Many people identify themselves as either being a “right-brained” person or a “left-brained” person, but the truth is that we all use both sides of our brain.

According to Brain HQ, this myth took root in the 1800s, when scientists discovered that an injury to one side of the brain caused a loss of specific abilities.

However, recent research has revealed that the hemispheres’ are not so cut-and-dried as once thought:

“The two hemispheres are in fact highly complementary. For example, language processing, once believed to be left- hemisphere-only, is now understood to take place in both hemispheres: the left side processes grammar and pronunciation while the right processes intonation. Similarly, experiments have shown that the right hemisphere does not work in isolation with regard to spatial ability: the right hemisphere seems to deal with a general sense of space, while the left hemisphere deals with objects in specific locations.”

We tend to associate right-brained people with creativity and the arts, and left-brained people with logic and problem-solving.

However, we rarely stop to think about how we use both sides of our brain. Dr. Taylor found out, first hand, what happens when we pay attention to the other side of our brains.

When the Brain Turns Off

Dr. Taylor suffered a stroke and was amazed to discover that her brain was fighting with itself about how to handle the situation.

Her left brain was telling her to get help, and by all accounts, that is what most of us would be doing.

But her right brain jumped in as well with messages of peace and comfort. She was both petrified and calm.

What happened to her was something that few people experience, or live to tell about.

She experienced switching off the brain power. Parts of her brain turned off and then turned on, with each side of the brain taking its turn to be in control.

“And in that moment, my left hemisphere brain chatter went totally silent. Just like someone took a remote control and pushed the mute button. Total silence. And at first I was shocked to find myself inside of a silent mind. But then I was immediately captivated by the magnificence of the energy around me. And because I could no longer identify the boundaries of my body, I felt enormous and expansive. I felt at one with all the energy that was, and it was beautiful there.”

In fact, Dr. Taylor found that during this state she almost felt a kind of peacefulness where the weight of emotional baggage had disappeared:

“Imagine what it would be like to be totally disconnected from your brain chatter that connects you to the external world. So here I am in this space and any stress related to my, to my job, it was gone. And I felt lighter in my body. And imagine all of the relationships in the external world and the many stressors related to any of those, they were gone. I felt a sense of peacefulness.”

However, it wasn’t long before Dr. Taylor realized that she needed to seek help despite how peaceful her state was:

“And in that moment my right arm went totally paralyzed by my side. And I realized, “Oh my gosh! I’m having a stroke! I’m having a stroke!” And the next thing my brain says to me is, “Wow! This is so cool. This is so cool. How many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?”

And then it crosses my mind: “But I’m a very busy woman. I don’t have time for a stroke!” So I’m like, “OK, I can’t stop the stroke from happening so I’ll do this for a week or two, and then I’ll get back to my routine, OK.”

So I got to call help, I got to call work. I couldn’t remember the number at work, so I remembered, in my office I had a business card with my number on it. So I go in my business room, I pull out a 3-inch stack of business cards. And I’m looking at the card on top, and even though I could see clearly in my mind’s eye what my business card looked like, I couldn’t tell if this was my card or not, because all I could see were pixels. And the pixels of the words blended with the pixels of the background and the pixels of the symbols, and I just couldn’t tell. And I would wait for what I call a wave of clarity. And in that moment, I would be able to reattach to normal reality and I could tell, that’s not the card, that’s not the card, that’s not the card. It took me 45 minutes to get one inch down inside of that stack of cards.”

Going Beyond Ourselves

Dr. Taylor recounts how at one point, she felt the total silence in her mind. Imagine what that must have been like?

Most of us can’t go one minute sitting in silence, and she experienced it without fear.

She recounts that the silence was comforting and she felt that she was outside of herself.

When she was no longer limited by what her brain could imagine or react to, she had a worldly experience.

“Two and a half weeks after the hemorrhage, the surgeons went in and they removed a blood clot the size of a golf ball that was pushing on my language centers. Here I am with my mama, who’s a true angel in my life. It took me eight years to completely recover.”

If it weren’t for her stroke, Dr. Taylor would not have had the opportunity to consider her own body and presence outside of herself.

She wouldn’t have gone on to ask important questions about who we are and what our purpose is on this planet. And we wouldn’t get to learn from her insight.

“But then I realized, “But I’m still alive! I’m still alive, and I have found Nirvana. And if I have found Nirvana and I’m still alive, then everyone who is alive can find Nirvana.” And I pictured a world filled with beautiful, peaceful, compassionate, loving people who knew that they could come to this space at any time. And that they could purposely choose to step to the right of their left hemispheres — and find this peace. And then I realized what a tremendous gift this experience could be, what a stroke of insight this could be to how we live our lives.”

What is our Purpose?

So the big question that everyone wants to be answered is this: what is our purpose? Why are we here?

Many self-improvement experts say it’s about the here and now and being the best versions of ourselves that we can be.

Dr. Taylor has a different idea of what life is all about.

She believes that we are the purpose, that we don’t just have individual purposes in life, but that we contribute to a greater purpose in the universe.

She was able to see that high-level perspective when she found herself with combating minds.

She says we all have two minds and if we can harness the power of them, then we will know what life is all about and how we can contribute to the greater purpose of humanity.

It’s hard to imagine what having a stroke is like, unless you’ve experienced one.

Dr. Taylor has been fortunate enough to have a full recovery from her stroke that found her questioning the way the brain works.

She is lucky in one sense that she had an opportunity to step outside of herself and focus in on how her brain works.

We spend so much time rushing through life that we rarely spend time thinking about how we are showing up in our lives. And she got to do just that.

She got to see how her brain wrestled for power, and that made her think that there is more to this life than just routines, and bills, and cute girls and boys in bars.

"So who are we? We are the life force power of the universe, with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds. And we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world. Right here right now, I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere where we are — I am — the life force power of the universe, and the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form. At one with all that is."

"Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere where I become a single individual, a solid, separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, intellectual, neuroanatomist. These are the “we” inside of me."

"Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when? I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres, the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be. And I thought that was an idea worth spreading."